Gotta Love the Marauders
by same.blue.sky
Summary: They say that, when you die, your life will flash before your eyes. Let's make ours worth watching. [New title and summary!]
1. Prologue: Making History

the eight (future) Gryffindors meet for the first time in Diagon Alley.

This chapter is just an aid to help you understand the characters, their personalities, and their relationships with eachother better. The first chapter comes next, at the start of their 6th year.

Disclaimer: I don't own or make money off of any part of this story(except my OCs). That's JKR's job.

_Dear Diary,  
Today we are going to some place called Diagon Alley to buy stuff for my new school. I'm supposed to meet Professor Flitwick there so he can show me where the shops are. Maybe I'll even see someone do magic! I can't wait!  
Yours, Lily _

Lily Evans and her mother walked into a pub called The Leaky Cauldron. It was a good thing Lily spotted it, because her mother walked right past it. They were supposed to meet Lily's Professor so he could guide her around the shops to buy her new items to go to Hogwarts, a wizarding school. That's right, Lily was a witch. Everyone in her family was so excited for her, except her jealous sister, Petunia.

Suddenly, Lily spotted a boy and girl who looked about her age sitting at a nearby table in the pub. The boy had messy black hair, glasses, and hazel eyes. The girl was extremely pretty, with long and wavy brunette hair and enormous purple- were they really purple? How odd! -eyes. The girl suddenly looked up and smiled at Lily. She waved her over towards them. Lily walked over nervously.

"Hello?" she asked.

The girl looked at her, still smiling. She had a nice smile. Lily felt relieved. "Hi! Are you starting at Hogwarts this year?" the girl asked her, jumping right into it.

"Yeah…are you both starting, too?" Lily was still sort of nervous, even though this girl apparently wasn't.

"Yes," the boy said. He seemed friendly to Lily, but he kept looking at her strangely.

"What's your name?" the girl asked her.

"Oh! Sorry! I'm Lily Evans!"

The girl looked both surprised and happy. "You're Lily? Great! I'm your guide! My name's Adriyana by the way, Adriyana Dumbledore." She jumped off of her chair and shook Lily's hand.

"You're my guide! That's great! I thought I was getting a teacher…"

"Yeah, Flitwick couldn't make it, so my grandfather sent me in his place. Says I do enough shopping to know this place like the back of my hand."

Lily giggled. "Your grandfather?"

"The Headmaster. I live with him." She said, adding, "So, is your mom coming with us?" as she pointed to Mrs. Evans, standing in the corner, looking more nervous than her daughter.

"Only to the bank," Lily was especially happy that this was true because Adriyana seemed like a great new friend and her mom always asked annoying questions.

"Hey, can I come with you guys?" the boy asked, suddenly. Adriyana looked at Lily questioningly. They nodded. The boy grinned.

"Great! I'll go tell my mum!" he responded, running off.

"Tell her she needs to open the gateway, none of us have a wand…yet," Adriyana called after him and smiled, possibly at the thought of getting a wand.

"How long have you known him?" Lily asked her. The two were apparently friends.

"Since I was four. His parents came to Orde-, I mean, meetings at my house and he would hang out with me while they were busy," she replied, looking sort of nervous, like she had almost let slip a secret.

"Oh…and his name is?"

"James Potter. He's pretty cool, and he's been one of my good friends for a while, we have a lot in common."

The three children, along with Lily and James' mothers, left the back of the pub and were now facing a brick wall. Lily was fascinated by the whole brick poking routine, and was somewhat sad when the mothers took their leave once they were out of the bank.

Only kidding. Freedom!

Eager to buy wizard supplies and talk to her new friends, Lily took off. As they walked down the street, James ran up to almost every window and looked at something, and Adriyana started telling Lily about all the shops and what they sold. She waved brightly to almost everyone who passed on the street.

Their first stop was a large store called Flourish and Blotts. Adriyana explained to Lily and possibly James that this was a bookstore, because he had never set foot in the place in his life, or any bookstore for that matter.

They were looking for The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) , but couldn't see it anywhere. Why would such a common book be so hard to find?

"Where is it?" James asked, getting impatient.

A young girl walked out from behind the bookshelf they were looking on. James had his back to her, but she was carrying four copies of the exact book they were looking for. "Here, I found them!" she said, happily. James jumped.

"Thanks!" the two girls exclaimed, each taking a copy and smiling gratefully.

"I'm Amber Carmichael, by the way!" the girl said.

"Nice to meet you!" said Lily kindly. They all introduced themselves to her.

Amber was average height, with blonde hair halfway down her back, and dark but sparkling blue eyes. She looked very friendly to Lily, judging from how she had helped out three strangers. It turns out that she was starting at Hogwarts, too.

They got in line to pay for their new books. Amber stood behind them. She was staring at the brown haired boy who was standing in front of the three of them with apparent interest.

Adriyana, who Lily could already tell was a very bold individual, noticed this and tapped the stranger on the shoulder. He shot about a foot in the air, and whirled around in shock. When he turned, they saw that he had caramel colored eyes and — Lily gasped — was covered in scars. He was looking down at his feet.

"Hogwarts?" Adriyana asked, noticing he had the same books as them.

"Yeah…Remus Lupin," he said shyly.

"Adriyana Dumbledore,"

"James Potter,"

"Lily Evans,"

"Amber Carmichael," she said with a giggle.

"Are you guys going to the apothecary next?" Remus asked.

"Yeah, wanna come?" James said, clearly relieved to find another boy.

"Sure!" he said. Amber looked ecstatic and asked if she could come too. Lily liked her a lot.

When they were all done paying they ran out of the bookstore….

…And right into another boy.

The blonde boy had watery blue eyes. He looked rather intimidated by them. Lily felt sort of sorry for him.

"Sorry!" James said, helping him up. Then he noticed the list that had fallen out of his hand. "You're starting at Hogwarts too, I see. What's your name?"

"P-Peter P-Pettigrew," he said, shakily. He looked like he wanted to run away as fast as he could.

After everyone in the group had introduced themselves to Peter, his mother started yelling for him in a nearby shop and he had to run off. Not that he was to upset about that, though.

"Interesting kid," James mused. The five of them continued down the street and entered the apothecary. When they got there, they saw a young girl (she looked about their age) hiding behind a barrel of something slimy. She looked like she was spying on a tall, slightly older boy who was buying potions ingredients with a very rapt interest and a look of adoration on her face. Adriyana told Lily that the boy was named Frank Longbottom, and he was starting his second year, but she didn't know the girl.

The girl had thin strawberry blonde hair and bluish-green eyes. She looked sort of thin and pale, but still healthy. Adriyana gave her a 'what are you doing?' look, and the girl pointed at Frank and then fanned her face, like she was flustered. The girls all giggled. It was clear that she had a thing for this guy.

Then Frank walked away and the girl regained her sanity, and walked up to them.

"Hi, I'm Alice Cohen…who are you guys?" she said.

They went through their introductions again. Alice joined the group, to the joy of all the girls, who were becoming fast friends. Remus and James were bonding as well.

Next they went to Ollivander's. Lily was so excited to buy her wand, so the others let her go first. Within three minutes, she had her wand. It was swishy and made of willow. James' wand was pliable and made of mahogany, and just a little longer than hers. It was no surprise to Ollivander that Adriyana's wand contained a feather from her own pet phoenix. The others looked shocked at this, so she explained how she had gotten one of the children from her grandfather's phoenix, Fawkes, for her 11th birthday. The other two girls' wands both contained a unicorn hair, and Remus' had a dragon heartstring core.

They went to buy pets next. Adriyana already had her phoenix but the three girls and two boys all got owls, though Alice was seriously considering a toad when she saw Frank come in and buy one. In the end she settled for naming her owl 'Trevvie' after his toad, Trevor.

Lily checked her list and was sad to see that there was just one stop left, the robe shop. She had been having so much fun!

Reading her mind, Adriyana said, " Lily, we'll see you again in a month! At school!"

"Yeah! We can all meet on the train!" Amber agreed.

"Maybe we'll all get put in the same classes! James put in.

"Yeah, you're bound to be in the same house as at least one of us!" Added Remus.

"I hope I'm in Gryffindor!" Lily said.

"Then you'll likely be with Agie and I," James said, then covered his mouth at the embarrassing nickname.

"You don't know that you'll be in it," Adriyana said to him  
This wasn't what James was hoping for, but he recovered quickly. "Of course I will, my whole family had been for years!" he said. He seemed rather boastful, like he was really proud of this fact.

"Gryffindor sounds good to me," Remus said. Amber immediately agreed.

"I still have no clue-" Alice began.

"Frank's in Gryffindor," Adriyana noted as she opened the door to the robe shop.

Alice ran over to a scarf display and plucked out a red and gold one, holding it up to herself. "Well, now that I think about it, Gryffindor suits me quite well,"

"I really hope I get sorted there!" Adriyana agreed.

"I wish I was…but I doubt it," a boy behind her said.

She whirled around, now facing a handsome boy who (you guessed it) looked like he was starting at Hogwarts this year, too. He had black hair that fell elegantly in front of his pale grey eyes.

"Why not?"

"All my family has been in Slytherin. Gits." he said with a frown. James snorted.

"Why? What's your surname?" James asked.

"The bane of my existence." He muttered.

"Really! How strange…" Alice said.

"My family is a bunch of foul people that think they're better than everyone else because they're 'pure blood'," he growled. "It makes me sick!"

"Well, that's awful!" Lily said. "What's pure blood?"

"People from all wizard families," James said.

"Like you guys?" She pointed to Adriyana and James.

"Yeah, but we don't think like that," James said, turning to the boy "I'm James Potter, by the way."

The rest of the group introduced themselves to the boy as well.

"Oh, I'm" — He cringed — "Sirius…Black," the boy said. James gasped.

"But I wish I wasn't…oh how I-,"

"SIRIUS BLACK!" An older woman who must have been his mother stormed up to him, screaming, " HOW DARE YOU DISGRACE OUR HOUSE BY TALKING TO SUCH FILTH! WHEN YOU REGAIN YOUR SENSE, I'LL BE WAITING OUTSIDE! She pushed him to the ground and stomped out.

Without hesitation Adriyana and James held out their hands to him. It was a sign that he counted them as his equals when he took their hands and they helped him up.

"Well…nice meeting you guys…I'd better go or she'll kill me…" he stalked out.

"See you at Hogwarts!" Adriyana called after him.

Petunia Evans' face was contorted in jealousy when her dratted sister walked in with five new friends. She glowered at Lily.

Lily was already counting the days until Hogwarts in her head. She was secretly overjoyed at her sister's face when all five of her friends said, "bye, Lily!" in unison when her mother waved her over. She laughed as she left behind Alice mooning over Frank, Adriyana and James talking animatedly about Quidditch — whatever that was — and Amber and Remus talking while exchanging darting glances. How awesome were her new friends! Also, she noted, James was kind of cute.

She went home that night with a light heart and even lighter pockets.

One month later….

Sirius Black, Amber Carmichael, Alice Cohen, Adriyana Dumbledore, Lily Evans, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and James Potter become the new Gryffindor first years.

The rest is history.

A/N- this is my first fic, so please review and tell me what you think!

Also, Please check out my other story, The Bachelor: Hogwarts style, starring everyones (i.e. mine) favorite heartthrob, Sirius Black!


	2. Drink this Pink Goo Because You're Cute!

**Well, here's the rewrite of this chapter! The awfulness of the original has been bothering me for a while, but I haven't been able to get around to fixing it until now. If you really want to read it (though I don't know why, it was awful), e-mail me and I'll send it to you.**

Disclaimer: Do we really need these? No, for two reasons. One, it's abundantly obvious that I don't own Harry Potter, and two…I doubt JKR, a nice, kind (and awfully wealthy) children's book author, wants to go around suing fanfic writers for living out their shiny little hopes and dreams.

_Dear Diary,_

_Remember me? I haven't written in a while; a month to be exact. This summer, I could spend so many lazy hours just writing, and doing basically nothing else. But since I got back I really haven't had the time…In fact, I haven't written ANYTHING yet about my sixth year at Hogwarts. I guess there are a lot of things that have changed, which I was scared of, but many things are still the same. For example: James Potter is still an arrogant prat, Remus Lupin remains the only remotely sane "Marauder" of the lot, Amber and Alice are still dating Remus and Longbottom, and Adriyana and I are still joined at the hip. Not literally, of course. Though that would be rather amusing…how would we ever use the loo?_

_It's in Adriyana, though, that I notice the most change. She's acting strangely lately. I think she likes someone, which is good, because she hasn't had a proper boyfriend since Gideon Prewett in fourth year. I would say Adriyana gets bored easily with some guys, but that's not really true…she gets bored easily by EVERYTHING. There isn't a thing that Adriyana doesn't think could be made more exciting. Usually by means of explosion or some kind of cheek on her part. Still, I wonder who she's crushing on._

_Hey, here she comes now. I'll ask her. It must really be serious if she hasn't told me yet._

_Lily_

_P.S.—She just told me. Oh, Merlin. Agie…MY best mate Agie…fancies Sirius Black? No, it can't be._

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"EVANS!" James yelled, stomping across the common room carelessly.

Lily whirled around, scowling at him. "What is it, Potter?"

"Wanna be my date to the Halloween Dance?" he asked, holding out his arms.

"Let me think about it," Lily deadpanned.

"Really?" James asked, incredulously.

"Yeah…it's going to take a lot of thought, though…I'll let you know around Christmas, I guess."

She walked away before she could hear his confused, "But won't the dance have ended by then?"

The stupid git would never change. Lily consoled herself with the fact that at least word of the dance was getting around. Once the four girls of Gryffindor's sixth year had heard that Frank Longbottom had been dubbed Head Boy, they'd been petitioning him to ask Dumbledore if they could have one. It had been YEARS since Hogwarts had had a dance of any kind, all they had was this stupid "Seventh Year Back To School Banquet," which, as the name suggests, was only for the seventh years, and Lily wasn't even sure any actual dancing was involved.

"MAYBE JUST ONE DANCE…OR SOME PUNCH?" James yelled, his voice reaching an astounding volume in an attempt to get Lily to hear it from her new location, on the other side of the common room.

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"I don't get it! Why won't she say yes?" James asked his fellow Marauders, slumping on the couch, seemingly defeated. Well, maybe for a day or so.

"Prongs…" Remus said, sighing. "She's not going to change her mind unless you start acting different."

James groaned. "But I _like_ me this way!"

"Well, it's pretty clear that Lily doesn't…"

James scoffed, as if the very thought of such a thing was impossible. "How would it help me to get a date with Lily if I stopped asking Lily on dates?"

Before Remus could answer (not that there was much to say to James' question that hadn't already been said…several times), they saw a girl coming toward them.

"Hello," she said, finally reaching them. James didn't recognize her, but she looked like she was only a year or so younger than them, with short blonde curls and dark eyes.

"Can we help you?" Peter asked, and raised one eyebrow.

"Sure," she giggled. James rolled his eyes. "I was just wondering…since Sirius has no date yet for the Halloween dance—"

"Sorry, not interested," Sirius said flatly, not even looking at the girl, but straight ahead, to where Lily and her friends were sitting.

The girl stormed away, as James gaped at Sirius. He shouldn't be that surprised, really; Sirius, who was usually known as a heartbreaker, sometimes being seen with a new girl every few days, hadn't as much as _looked_ at one since toward the end of their fifth year.

Well…there was _one_ he'd been looking at quite a lot, actually.

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Remus watched his best friend as he stared down the group of girls. Being the reasonable one of the group, he'd known that Sirius would have to feel something for a girl at some point in their time at school, even the tiny spark that was the crush he clearly had on some girl right now.

He looked in the direction Sirius was gazing…it didn't take a genius to figure it out. Sirius would never go for Lily, because James would kill him, and he wouldn't be hung up on Remus' own girlfriend, Amber, either, because "he doesn't go for chicks with glasses." That left just two of them, Alice and Adriyana. He compared the two. Alice was fairly smart, but wasn't as pretty as Lily or Adriyana, who she was seldom seen without. Adriyana was indeed very attractive, and, though she possessed a strong wit, wasn't known for living up to her last name in the "genius" department, to say the least.

But…Alice wasn't single, and Adriyana was. Plus, now that Remus thought about it, if he had to pick out the perfect girl for Padfoot, she'd be a lot like Adriyana. A girl who loves to laugh and can take a joke, who would rather spend time hanging out with Sirius than doing her homework, and who would also appeal to the shallow side of Sirius that Remus couldn't just pretend didn't exist.

Yes…Adriyana Dumbledore was an excellent match for Sirius Black.

Remus cleared his throat, and all the other Marauders looked at him. He opened his mouth, trying to say it casually, but also aching to laugh as he thought of what Sirius' reaction would be, "Padfoot, Why don't you ask Adriyana to the dance?"

And Sirius did not disappoint him, jumping nearly a foot in the air before he began to sputter, turning a spectacular shade of red somewhere between "Hogwarts home-style tomato sauce," and "Peter's mum's lipstick."

_Remus Lupin, master of unearthing hidden emotions,_ Remus thought, with a satisfied grin one usually wore when they hit the nail on the head.

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"…That looked like it went really well, Lils," Adriyana said as she approached. Lily glared, but burst out laughing a second later.

"I'm not kidding! Normally, a bloke won't offer to get you a drink until you're actually _at_ the dance!" Adriyana said, grinning.

"Not like I'd ever let him take me. I've never seen such an extreme case of megalomania in my life!"

Adriyana stared at her blankly for a moment. "Not all of us read the entire bloody dictionary over the summer," she said, finally.

Amber, with a self-satisfied smirk, said, "She means James is exceedingly arrogant, and has an undeserved sense of satisfaction." Amber always got excited when she knew something Adriyana didn't. She never gave up a chance to correct any of the four girls when they said something wrong, though when she corrected Adriyana it was in a more condescending manner. The two were still friends, but Amber always got a kick out of one-upping Adriyana, and none of them knew why.

Adriyana shrugged. "I've got bigger problems right now," she said.

Lily looked up at her. "What is it?"

"Nobody's asked me to the dance yet!"

Lily sighed. "Agie. It's not that no one's asked you…it's that _Black_ hasn't asked you."

"Yeah, but none of them are Si—er, none of them fit my…um…criteria."

"What would those be? Black hair, grey eyes…" Lily went on and on, and Adriyana looked over toward where the Marauders were sitting, and smiled.

Why don' you jus' ask 'im?" Alice said, as eloquently as one with seven pieces of Drooble's Best-Blowing Gum stuffed in their mouth could.

Adriyana shrugged again. Lily knew she was kind of self conscious when it came to Sirius because the rest of his family treated her with a less than friendly demeanour. Adriyana hadn't ever let any of the things that Bellatrix and Narcissa said bother her before, but Lily knew what Adriyana was thinking, how it would be so easy for them to impress their thoughts upon Sirius.

"Come on, Agie...You're almost too good for the boy," Alice said. Lily nodded in agreement, sizing Adriyana up. She had lovely, though abnormally large, purple eyes (which were the colour they were a result of a "Potions accident" in her youth…and another reason why Lily will never do anything James Potter says…how Agie could drink a random bottle he'd given her, Lily would never know), pale freckles across the bridge of he nose, and long, light brown hair that fell in messy waves. It drove Lily mad when a piece of it fell in front of Adriyana's eyes, but Adriyana didn't seem to mind. It wouldn't surprise Lily if she walked around with that one supremely annoying piece hanging right over her left eye _just_ to annoy people (like herself) to no end.

A part of Lily…a rather big part, actually, was worried for her friend. She knew about Sirius' reputation…they both did. She was shocked at Adriyana. How could she fall so easily into the trap that was Sirius Black? She thinks she can change him, does she? Lily snorted. Boys don't change. Sure, she used to be mildly attracted to the way James Potter looked, but once she saw what a bullying toerag he was she'd given up on him immediately. Why? She knew he'd never change, and she liked her heart unbroken, thank-you-very-much.

Adriyana, though…how could she be so stupid, to think that Sirius Black would want a girlfriend?

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The next day, in History of Magic, Sirius took the seat right next to Adriyana's usual seat. She looked like she was blushing a little when she sat down.

Usually, she sat there in a half-asleep trance, but today, it looked like something was distracting her, and making her jumpy. She sat there, painting her nails with odd colours of nail polish, like green, blue, and purple, drying the polish with her wand, peeling it off, and starting over again.

She was just putting on her third coat of the purple polish when a note came whizzing across the room, hitting her in the head with a faint rustling noise. She pulled the balled-up parchment out of her hair and read it.

Sirius watched intently. After a minute or so, she scowled angrily, scribbled something at the bottom of the note roughly, and passed it to _him_. He jumped a bit as she smiled at him.

"Give it to Thomas," she said shortly, avoiding his eyes. Sirius couldn't help himself…WHAT could the note say?

He casually dropped it under the table, shot Adriyana an apologetic smile, and dove after it.

He unwrapped the note from the tight ball Adriyana had made it into with her fist, and read:

_Adriyana,_

_You're hot. Would you like to accept the honour of coming to the dance with me? I can show you the Ravenclaw common room afterwards, and my dormitory, and my bed…hell, I can show you EVERYTHING, baby._

Sirius made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. How could anyone talk to someone as great as Adriyana like this? He knew Broderick Thomas had a bad reputation…a lot like himself, actually. Would Adriyana just hate him too because she thought all guys were like this?

Beneath the letter, Thomas had made three boxes, next to each he had written either "yes," "no," or "maybe." Adriyana hadn't filled out any of these boxes, but there was a fourth box underneath, written in purple ink and bubbly, girly handwriting. He wondered vaguely why she wrote in purple ink, and laughed when he read it:

_Go bugger yourself, Thomas. Merlin knows nobody else will._

Then she'd made put a check through the box next to it. He grinned, and read the rest of what she'd written at the bottom of the letter:

_Wow, Thomas, you sure do know how to compliment a girl. Because you're probably too thick to figure it out, I'll let you in on a little secret. I'm being sarcastic. No, I'm not interested in you, and no, I never will be. I'd never date anyone like you, you great prat._

The last sentence made Sirius cringe. He REALLY wanted a chance with Adriyana…ever since fifth year. He'd even stopped dating other girls because none of them were anything like her…or, at least…what he'd hoped she'd be like.

"Sirius? Hey, Black! Did you die down there, or something?" He heard Adriyana's voice call.

"Dammit!" he whispered, quickly crumpling up the note again. "I'm fine, Adriyana!" He shot back up, grinning sheepishly, and tossing the note back at Broderick a bit harder than someone who didn't know its contents would.

Adriyana turned around again with a small smile, focusing again on peeling off her nail polish.

Sirius stared at her in shock for a minute. Oh, Merlin. She really though he was like Thomas! That's why she'd been acting so strangely around him lately! Fuck.

No. Sirius wouldn't let himself quit that easily, he hadn't even had a chance yet!

A note landed on his desk. He opened it roughly, assuming it was from Broderick again, and had just missed Adriyana.

_Padfoot,_

Definitely not Broderick. He recognized it a second later as Remus' untidy scrawl.

_You have to make her feel special. Trust me. Think of doing something that's the polar opposite of what you usually do with, to, or around girls._

_-Moony_

Sirius grinned, ignoring the jibe and looking instead at the advice it concealed. If that's what Adriyana wanted, that's what she'd get.

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_Merlin, how can this really be happening? Sirius must be just like Broderick, yet I still like him. I'll bet he read that note while he was under the table, and now the thinks I'm some kind of tart…_

Adriyana shook her head, turning her focus back to her potion. Lily looked up from her cauldron, its contents looking exactly like it should. She raised her eyebrows when she saw the contents of Adriyana's cauldron, which looked like pale pink porridge.

Suddenly, she brightened. "Agie," she whispered. "Add five drops of Hellebore, a pinch of Asphodel, and then spit in it!"

Adriyana stared at her like she was crazy, then started adding ingredients. She was terrible at Potions, and Lily was Slughorn's favourite pupil. Who was she to argue?

Adriyana managed to fallow Lily's steps without messing them up, but as soon as she spit into the cauldron, the contents turned a blinding, fluorescent pink.

Adriyana looked up at Lily, who was grinning maniacally. "Lils, you prat! I thought it would fix my potion. This doesn't look like "pale chartreuse" to me! And I don't even know what chartreuse is!"

Lily laughed. "I didn't say it would fix the potion, but here's a bottle. I want to slip some in Potter's drink at dinner. Should be interesting."

Adriyana poured a ladleful into the bottle, then pocketed it, her eyes flashing over to where Sirius was working. Forget giving it to James, she had better ideas.

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"What will it do, exactly?" Adriyana asked Lily, twirling the glowing bottle in her hand.

Lily just smiled, eyes glinting mischievously. "You'll see."

"And how the bloody hell do we get Sirius to drink it? We can't just slip it in his drink! I mean, I would think it odd if my water started glowing pink. I would think twice before drinking it, really," Adriyana said.

"Just one question…If you like the guy so much, why are you torturing him?" Amber asked, putting her fork down.

Adriyana sighed. "First of all, I don't know what it does. It could be anything from a love potion to melon juice. Secondly…I'm using it as a gauge for how much he likes me. If he gets really mad, he doesn't, and…well, I haven't got that far yet, but still!" Adriyana said rapidly, then smiled.

"Still, we can't just go up to him and say, 'Hey, Black! Drink this shiny pink goo because Agie thinks you're really fit!' I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way!" Lily said.

"Wait…I got it!" Adriyana said, suddenly. She turned to Lily. "Play along, yeah?" Lily nodded.

Adriyana stared at the bottle in her hand, and, talking _very_ loudly, said, "Oh, Lils! I can't believe this stuff is firewhiskey. Who knew…um…pink…made it stronger?"

Lily looked up at her, sceptically, then snapped back into focus. "Oh, yeah…I did do…that thing," she said, in an equally loud voice.

Adriyana looked up, seeing James and Sirius walking towards them. "That was almost TOO easy," Lily whispered. Adriyana snickered.

"'Lo Evans…Agie," James greeted them, leaning against the table 'casually.' "What's that?" He pointed to the bottle.

Adriyana stared up at Sirius, saying nothing. After nearly a minute of silence, Lily elbowed her in the side.

"Oh! Um…it's…con-concentrated whiskeyfire….er, I mean firewhiskey." Adriyana said, blushing.

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_She's adorable, really, with the stuttering and the blushing, _Sirius thought. _But why's she doing it?_

He held his hand out to her. "Can I have a bit?"

She smiled, handing him the bottle. "Sure," she said, winking at Lily.

Sirius downed half the bottle in one impressive gulp. It really didn't taste like anything, just lukewarm water. It didn't give him the buzz alcohol usually did, either. It was making his head feel rather warm and tingly, but not in the buzzing, swimming fashion he thought he'd get.

He handed the bottle back to her. "Thanks, but I don't think that's firewhiskey," he said.

She burst out laughing, looking up at him. "That…that much is abundantly ob—obv--obvious!" she choked out.

Lily and James were laughing as well. "Well, Black…you've given us all a good reason not to drink alcohol!" Lily snorted.

"What're you going on about?" Sirius asked, and Adriyana handed him the mirror she kept in her rucksack.

A/N—I like this alternate chapter much better. Still not my favourite, but at least it doesn't make me cringe in pain.

Don't forget to leave a review…tell me if you like the change! I know, it's like getting a whole new chapter, right? Well, it basically is, but still…


	3. Why Detentions are Your Friends

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. How sad for me.

_Dear Diary,_

_Broderick Thomas is driving me NUTS! He has taken to chasing me around the halls asking me to the dance even though I blew him off on our date, turn him down every time, and explained about the dare. Oh yeah, I also kicked him in the nads when he tried to snog me. I do that to people so often I forget. It seems to deter most guys pretty well (which is why I do it, I don't enjoy it or anything), but not Thomas. Bloody hell. Now I know how Lily feels, except she and James would make a fantastic couple. I hope she sees it soon._

_Hmm…what else? Oh, you should have seen Sirius' face when I told him Thomas said yes to the date, only…you're a book. Well, I felt terrible about making him look so heartbroken, but I guess that means he likes me. Either that or he was just upset Thomas wasn't gay because… SHUT UP BRAIN! SHUT UP! Well, I'm happy as a pig in shit that he (probably) likes me, the rest of the girls thinks he does too, by the way. They said that he kept asking them questions about me when I was out being harassed by Thomas. I wish he would just ask me to the dance already, I've been waiting all for him to all week, but still nothing._

_Love,_

_Adriyana_

_P.S. - Peter the Slave makes an excellent footstool. And he has like, a secret stash of butterbeer. He's like a packrat. Too bad the week is nearly over._

_Dear Really Manly Journal Thing,_

_Girls write stuff in these to take their minds off of shit. I hope it works, because Adriyana is stuck in my head. I have to focus on something that's important right now, but it's kind of hard not to think about her when my hair is still pink from that potion she gave me. Like fluorescent pink. I mean, I couldn't sleep last night because of my stupid glowing hair. Plus, I think of her every time I look at it…Ok, girls are wrong. Writing in a journal is NOT fulfilling, it sucks! That's it, I'm booking it._

_-Sirius_

_Dear Diary,_

_Potter has asked me to the dance 23 times now. I must find a date, I'm Going bananas. I wish he would just sit on it, already._

_A.F.A,_

_Lily_

Adriyana sat next to Lily in the common room; they had a break before Transfiguration and were doing their Potions essays. Lily was fantastic at Potions but Adriyana was abysmal, so she needed help. A lot of help. "So…what is powdered root of asphodel?" Adriyana asked for the millionth time.

"It's the key ingredient in the Potion…you know, the one we've been writing about for the last half hour..." Lily said, exasperated.

"Right…" she said, knowing that she would forget again in a second. The portrait hole opened, and Sirius walked into the common room. it looked like a flamingo was curled up on his head. He scowled at all the snickering students around him. Lily saw him and broke into hysterical laughter. She never got tired of it! Adriyana looked at him longingly. Lily thought she would hate the idea of her friend and Sirius Black together, but now she wasn't so sure. As soon as he had asked her about Adriyana during truth or dare, she knew that he liked her, and while she trusted her friend, she saw that Sirius might also have finally… changed. Plus, he made Adriyana smile in a way nobody else could when she just i thought /i of him. Hopefully he was about to ask her to the dance. Took him long enough.

"Well, I'm going to go upstairs and get…my…items." Lily said lamely. She took off for the stairs.

Sirius approached Adriyana, who was trying to look studious and smart, but seemed to have forgotten what she was writing about, and was scribbling her name over and over into her essay. "Er…Adriyana? Can I ask you something?" Sirius asked, nervously.

i Finally/i she thought, putting down her essay.

"Yeah? And you can call me Agie. Or Dree, though not many people call me that. Whatever, really," she realized she was going on about nothing and clamped her jaw shut.

"Um…will you… well…I want to know if….will you help me with my Potions essay? It's my worst class." He finished.

She tried not to let him see her face fall. "Er, well, it's mine also. Lily was helping me, but she went upstairs for a bit, so now I'm lost," she thought about letting him see her essay to prove it, but saw that she had written 'Sirius looks so gorgeous, even with pink hair' on it, and hastily shoved it into her bag.

"…Oh," he said. "Well, when is she coming back? She can help me too, if she wants,"

_'help in Potions and being able to spend time with Adriyana for the rest of break? Ace!'_ he thought.

"Sure, I'll get her." she said as she pulled out a piece of parchment from her pocket and tapped it with her wand.

Confused and intrigued, he asked "What is that?"

"Oh, it's how the four of us talk when we're far away...or don't want to be overheard. All of us have a piece of this parchment and whatever one of us writes on it appears on all four papers. We can communicate with them, she should write back any second. Oh, there she goes, see?" She said, incredibly pleased with herself for making such an intelligent speech to him and not acting like an idiot.

She showed him the paper. There, in bubbly purple letters were the words: _Lils, come back down. Sirius and I need help on our essays_.

Before Sirius' eyes, more writing appeared on the paper. This time, in shining emerald ink, was written:_ coming…_

"So, what do the colors mean?"

"Oh, we always write in our eye colors, it's easier to tell who is who, because we can't see each other. It's a habit of mine now," she motioned toward the bottle of purple ink in front of her. "Now I only write in purple ink." Again, showing him her essay as proof was probably a bad idea.

Lily joined them on the couch. Adriyana pulled out her essay and tapped it with her wand roughly, siphoning off some ink. Lily looked at the paper and snorted. "Okay, so what _else_ is there to write?" she asked.

James felt a stab of jealousy when Sirius walked into Transfiguration after him, talking to Lily, his Lily (sort of), and Adriyana. Then he remembered how Sirius liked Agie and not Lily and started to calm down. Especially when Sirius led the two girls over to where he was sitting. Amazingly, Lily followed, though did not look happy to see James sitting there.

"Hey, Lily would you-"

"No, Potter, I will not go to the dance with you! Stop asking before I hex you into a pulp!" she glared at him and her emerald eyes rendered him incapable of a witty comeback. Not that many were available…

Adriyana muttered "twenty-four," under her breath as the three of them sat down and class begun.

Remus and Amber walked into class just before the bell rang, hand in hand. They saw the two girls and two Marauders sitting together, and separated reluctantly to sit in the empty seats next to Peter and Alice. The couple had been dating since their fourth year and had been in love for about a year now.

_Flashback_

_Remus sighed sadly as he saw Amber Carmichael, the love of his life (though she didn't know it, exactly… they had only been going out for a little over a year, and they were young) looking up at him with adoration. This may be the last time those enchanting dark blue eyes ever looked at him in that way again. He had no idea how she would take what he was about to tell her; his deepest, darkest secret. Willing himself not to get lost in the pools of blue that were her eyes, he stepped a little closer to her._

_"Amber, there's something I need to tell you, and it's not exactly easy." Remus said. She was sitting against a rock, reading a Transfiguration book._

_"Okay, Remus," Amber said, putting down her book (she was already studying for the OWLs, even though it was only October)._

_They walked out to more secluded part of the lake, and he turned around and grabbed her hands. "Don't hate me for what I say next."_

_"I would never hate you, Remus." She responded. She looked like she was about to say something else, but she bit her lip._

_"Well then, here goes… I'm… a werewolf." He finished, and closed his eyes, ready for the worst. He had heard so many things about werewolf prejudices, and, as much as he trusted Amber, he wouldn't blame her if she never spoke to him again. I mean, he had been a coward for not telling her for the long time they had been dating, right? He was just so afraid to lose her, but he couldn't keep a secret that big from her anymore. It was tearing him up inside every day that she didn't know._

_To his surprise and dismay, a sobbing Amber fell into his arms and pulled him in very tightly. He didn't know what to think. His heart broke a little bit with every sob she let out. His gold-flecked brown eyes popped open again._

_"What's the matter, love?" He said as she buried her face into his chest._

_"Well, you would be crying too if the boy you loved had to go through something that horrible and painful every month and you couldn't do anything to help him!" she said through her tears, pulling him in tighter._

_"You…love me?" he asked, shocked. Of course he loved her too, but he wasn't expecting her to say that, of all things. He pulled her away from him slightly so he could brush away her tears._

_"I love you, Remus," she confirmed. Her tears were coming slower now._

_"I love you too, Amber." He said, pulling her in for a kiss._

_End of Flashback_

He took the empty seat next to Peter and gazed at her longingly. She had her blonde hair up in a messy bun today, and was eagerly taking notes, even though they didn't have to. He had yet to ask her to the dance. I mean, it was pretty obvious that they were going together, but he was the type of hopeless romantic that things like asking his girlfriend of over two years to every dance. He wasn't nervous; in fact, why not ask her now?

He scribbled something sweet and romantic on a piece of parchment, transfigured it into a paper dove, and sent it over to her.

Yay! A letter from Remus.

She loved how he had transfigured the paper into her patronus. In fact, she loved nearly everything about him, and she had since the first time she saw him, in that bookstore that day in Diagon Alley. She opened it, hating to destroy the dove but eager to read its contents, and smiled. She looked up and met Remus' waiting eyes.

She nodded and blew him a kiss. He smiled at her.

She pulled out her trusty piece of "walkie-talkie paper," as Lily called it, though Amber had no clue what a walkie-talkie was, and tapped it with her wand. Sapphire blue words blossomed on the page:

_ Guys, Remus asked me to the dance. Any ideas for costumes?_

The three other girls pulled their pieces of paper out of their pockets at the exact same time. The parchment got warm when something was written on it, thanks to Lily's protean charm. She heard a quiet giggle and a tap form Lily and Adriyana's table. Seconds later, Alice started cracking up, receiving a glare from McGonagall.

Knowing anything Alice thought was i that /i funny couldn't be good, she looked down at her own paper and gasped. Of course she was right. There, in glistening purple ink, were the words:

_How about a pimp and a 'ho?_

She glared at Adriyana. In response, she wiggled her eyebrows and winked. Amber was relieved. Of course she was kidding, Adriyana knew her well enough to know she would never do that. Still, it was pretty funny. She looked down, and saw that turquoise words appeared under the violet ones. Alice.

_Brilliant! That's hilarious!_

_Fine, then you and Frank do it!_ Her own dark blue writing again.

_ Really? Thanks! Frank will love that one!_ he would, too. Frank loved to try new, exciting, and sometimes inappropriate things, to prove himself as a good friend of The Marauders, but he was still mostly the sweet boy-next-door type. The male equivalent of Alice.

_Fine Am, how about Romeo and Juliet, then?_ Came the purple bubbly writing again.

_Ooh, I'm sure Remus would go for that!_ Lily's electric green scrawl.

But Amber was already in love with the idea.

Back at Lily's table, things were a bit more… active, to say the least. They were turning knives into paper airplanes and since all four of them were extremely competent, they had stared a contest to see who could do the most before class ended. The table was covered in heaps of knives and paper airplanes, which they were rather carelessly swinging about, each of them trying to impress someone at the table, except for Lily, who just wanted to beat James. Sadly, he was the one who was winning.

"Why am I not winning? I'm brilliant!" Sirius wailed.

"Says the guy whose head looks like the rainbow spewed on it…" Adriyana said, snickering.

"That reminds me… how the bloody hell do I get my hair to change back! I've tried everything!" He said, and Lily and Adriyana laughed.

"Did you try washing it?" Lily asked, grinning.

"Yes! At least I think so. Wait…er…no," he said, feeling very stupid. The ONE day he decided to skip a shower, and they found out…

"WHAT is going on here? Knives are not a plaything!" thundered McGonagall, who was standing over them now.

"Professor, we were just having some fun!" Sirius said, running his hand through his neon hair.

"Oh yes, it's all fun until someone gets hurt!" she retorted.

"Yeah, then it's hilarious!" said Adriyana. Everyone went hysterical.

"Miss Dumbledore!" McGonagall gasped.

"Ohmigod! Did I just say that out loud?" Adriyana covered her mouth with her hands.

"Yes, and I will see you back here at six for detention!" she yelled back. Lily looked at Sirius' face, to see if he was going to defend her. Then again, how could he? She was clearly guilty! Her eyes traveled past Potter, who, like most of the class, was still laughing at Adriyana's unintentional cheek. Sirius, however, had an odd grin on his face. Lily noticed that it was partially his 'I'm planning something' grin, but also….relief? Happiness?

How very odd…

"Romeo and Juliet? That's brilliant! I love it!" Remus exclaimed, as he and Amber walked back to the common room holding hands after class.

She smiled appreciatively. Of course he loved it. He was the same kind of hopeless, tragic romantic as Romeo, minus the suicide part, and she would love nothing more than to be his Juliet. "I knew you would… Adriyana came up with it." She responded.

"Did she, now? I would expect something more…risqué…from her."

"Like a pimp and a 'ho? Because she said that first,"

"Yeah, that's more like her…a pimp and a 'ho…" he started laughing, and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

After Transfiguration, Lily tried to track down Sirius on the way to the common room. It was killing her that he had been smiling when Adriyana got detention. Didn't he like her? Were all of them wrong about that part and he really hated her guts? No, it couldn't be. He was probably just planning some stupid prank. But what did it have to do with Adriyana? She caught up to him. "Black!" she gasped, "What are you planning?"

"I beg your pardon, old chap?" He said, trying to maintain his composure.

"Why were you smiling in Transfiguration when Adriyana got detention?"

"Because of that 'hilarious' thing Agie said. That was funny, wasn't it?" he said. And he walked away, grinning.

Later that night, Adriyana was practically limping back to the common room. Her arms were numb. She had just been scrubbing out the girl's toilets for the last two hours. Stupid spontaneous personality. Why did she blurt that out? She already knew the answer to that question. It was sitting across from her at the time and making her brain malfunction.

She reached the portrait of the Fat Lady and said the password tiredly. "Snickerdoodle," According to Lily, it was some kind of Muggle foodstuff.

"Rough day, dear?" said the portrait consolingly, as it swung open. She stumbled through the hole.

"You don't know the half of it." It was true. Between waiting anxiously for Sirius to ask her to the dance, and detention, she was utterly exhausted.

She entered the common room to see Sirius standing off to the side of the room. His hair was that amazing shade of black again. He was looking down with an extremely nervous expression on his face. He was wringing his hands. She would have gone over and talked to him, but now she really wanted -needed- a hot shower. She trudged up to her room. It would be empty now, as Lily was on prefect duties, Alice was probably snogging Frank in his room, and Amber and Remus were working on their costumes in the Room of Requirement, she knew because she ran into them on the way back here. Remus had a very odd look on his face, like he was holding in a secret.

She entered the room, flipped on the light (which turned on the…torches?), and let out a scream of surprise.

Nobody was there, but in no way was the room empty. Every inch of the room was full of vases of red roses. They were on the tables, the floor, the ceiling (really). They were in the sink, stuffed in her shoes, dangling off the posts of her bed, EVERYWHERE!

Then she noticed the envelope on her bed.

She ran over to it, tripping over a vase of roses on her way. Even if she wasn't running, it was hard not to, as there were so many vases. Her name was written on the envelope. She opened the seal and pulled out the letter, which was written in grey ink. She smiled at the tribute, and her heart jumped. There was only one person besides the girls who knew about the ink thing, and only one she knew who had grey eyes, and they were the same person. Heart pounding in her chest a mile a minute, she brought the letter into the light to read it.

_Adriyana,_

_I'm really bad at romantic notes…but…I think you're... beautiful. Not just for the way you look, either (though the way you look doesn't hurt). Trust me, I don't do this for just any girl, but trust me, you're not any girl. You're smart, beautiful, funny, gorgeous, outgoing, nice, pretty, a great friend, a true Gryffindor, really good looking, an amazing seeker…I could go on and on. You make me smile whenever you enter the room. Some of my favorite things about you are the little things that make you… you. How you only write in purple ink, how you can't turn down a dare, even how terrible you are at Potions. You're just like me in so many ways. I really like you, and I can't believe I haven't told you this sooner, but…will you be my date to the Halloween dance? I'm waiting downstairs for your reply. Please let it be yes._

_Sirius_

She was already halfway down the stairs when she read the last few sentences. Tiredness forgotten, she bolted out the entrance to the girls dorms and flung herself into Sirius' waiting arms. His warm embrace felt so right, like she belonged there. She could probably stay like this forever.

After a minute…ten minutes….who knows, really... they pulled away. He had a grin on his face that threatened to break it in half. He spoke first. "So, you'll go with me then?"

She laughed and thought about telling him something like 'no, I think you're gross' but really only felt like saying, "Yes. Of course I will."

"And…you feel the same way?" he said, still looking apprehensive.

"Yes," and she hugged him again.

Lily walked into the common room a minute later to see her best friend sitting on the couch with Sirius, sitting very close together and talking quietly. Then she noticed that they were holding hands.

She walked up to them. "Finally! He asked you!"

Adriyana looked away from Sirius and up at Lily. "Go see for yourself." She motioned towards the dormitory.

They waited together for Lily's scream and the thundering footsteps a second later. "Sirius…how?" she stuttered, returning to them.

"I was wondering that myself." Adriyana said.

"Well, if you must know, Remus told me to give you flowers. Then I got the idea to use a ton of flowers, so I asked Professor Dumbledore what your favorites were. He told me that you loved red roses, so the other Marauders and I found these in the forest and picked them. Then I enlisted the help of the first years and some other girls to get the flowers up to your dorm and put the note on your bed. That's why I was smiling when you got detention. I would have had to ask Lily to distract you, and this way was easier. I'm sorry she put you on toilet duty, though." By the time he had finished, Adriyana was grinning from ear to ear.

'_wow. He did all that for me,'_ she thought. Part of her couldn't believe she actually trusted him, while the other part was already regretting the "no kissing until the third date" rule. At least the first one was coming up.

"Well, Sirius, I'm extremely impressed. Who knew you had a romantic side?" Lily said warmly.

"I don't, really. That's my brilliant side in action. I just decided to use my powers for good instead of evil." He put his arm around Adriyana.

"Only one thing left to do now!" she said, smiling up at him.

"Oh yeah? What's that?" he asked. He was kind of hoping for a kiss, but also kind of wanting to wait for the perfect moment.

"Pick out our costumes, of course!" she said.

i that works, too/i He thought, as they walked over to the couch by the fire, laughing as Alice, who had just entered the common room, called behind them, "if you even think about picking a pimp and a 'ho, I'll kill you!"

A/N: Well, there's chapter three! I went over this one quite a few times and kept adding stuff, so it got pretty long, a lot longer than I thought. Sirius' letter was especially difficult; I had to make him sort of romantic while still maintaining the "player" vibe a little. I'm not so good with fluff, so that flashback bit was sort of hard as well. Review and tell me what you think! i'll give you a cookie (possibly)!


	4. Explosions and Ceiling Adhesion 101

Disclaimer: I shall not take credit for that which isn't mine.

**Chapter 4--Explosions and Ceiling Adhesion 101**

_What's up, Diary?_

_I'm on cloud nine. Really. Sirius is so nice to me, like he's never been for any other girl. Maybe it's just because he feels bad about the howlers I get from his "fan club", which is odd, because I find them hilarious. McGonagall is on a mission to find the sender, I could tell her who it was, I know who, but then I may not get them anymore, and I wouldn't want that. They are just too funny. Especially the one I got at one in the morning today. Lily didn't like that one so much. The Marauders latest prank was apparently in my honor, because when we went down to the Great Hall for dinner, everyone was laughing and pointing up at the ceiling. Turns out they had magically glued Broderick Thomas to it. No, really. It took four hours to find out how to get him down, and it turns out he's deathly afraid of heights. Even Lily was hysterical. Anyway, next week I'm going to be so busy. The dance is on Friday, Hogsmeade on Saturday, and we kill Slytherin at the Quidditch game Tuesday. The team is amazing this year, thanks to James Potter, Quidditch captain extraordinaire. I'm still the seeker, but Amber got picked as chaser, along with James himself, and Liz Kelner, a girl in 7th year. Sirius is a beater, and that new kid, 3rd year Joey Abercrombie, is too. He's great, but seems pretty nervous. Lila Smith is still keeper, and Amber was so happy when Remus got chosen as commentator. I hope he calls her some stupid pet name over the microphone. That would be- oh Merlin! I just thought of the greatest costume idea ever! Gotta go!_

_TTFN,_

_Adriyana_

_Dear Dumb Journal,_

_Just thought I'd tell you that the roses worked. I'm so glad they did, but I can't see why I'm even bothering to tell a stupid inanimate object._

_-Sirius_

"So…we _don't_ need a Halloween prank? Why the bloody hell not?" James asked Sirius, who Remus was currently trying to stop from throwing his journal in the fire.

"I told you, Prongs, Adriyana's got it covered. You should see the costume idea she had. It's hilarious! I hope we can pull it off!" He responded.

"Any chance you'll tell us what it is?" Peter asked.

"Sorry, Wormtail, that's a surprise."

"Why?"

"Cause it will be funnier. Plus Moony will tell Amber, who will tell another girl, and soon the whole school will be stealing our idea."

"So your _costume_ is the prank?" James asked, again.

"Yup," came Adriyana's voice from the door, where she had just appeared. "Of course, that doesn't stop you three from…blowing up all the pumpkins, or whatever." Peter and James exchanged maniacal grins and ran off, James in the lead. "And Amber's waiting for you downstairs," She pointed at Remus. He needed no further convincing and bolted down the stairs after them.

Sirius smiled at her. She was so amazing. What was even more amazing was the fact that she was actually going out with him. She was one of the few girls who had never thrown themselves at his feet. He actually had to work to earn her trust and now, her affection. It had been worth it, though, he noted, staring at her as she walked over to his bed and plopped down next to him. "Ow…still sore from that stupid detention …"

"Don't worry, eventually, you'll build up immunity to the pain. I did," he said, putting a supportive hand on her shoulders.

"Yeah? After how many detentions?" she asked.

"Er…396." He recalled. She groaned. "Well, your costume idea is amazing,"

"Thanks…you don't think we'll be expelled, do you?"

"Since when do I care?" he said, but he looked a little nervous.

"I think we should get a teacher's permission. What if we…." She broke off and looked around, then whispered the rest in his ear.

A smile spread across his face. "That'll work…wow…teacher's permission for a prank…never thought I'd see the day," he said.

"Oh, you guys are no fun!" James pulled off his invisibility cloak and stared at them "I try to find out your costume plans, and…ARRGH!" he stormed out.

Adriyana looked at Sirius. They both burst out laughing. Then she suddenly sat up, pulling the paper contraption out of her pocket. Sirius saw a flash of blue-green ink. She grinned." Sirius, I have to go… is that okay?"

"Sure…why?"

"Alice needs help with her costume. This should be good…"

He smiled at her. "Okay. See you later." he said, and she grinned and left the room.

------------------------

"One of you give me a bra, you all have bigger boobs than me, I'll stuff it." Alice asked.

Adriyana started cracking up and went over to her drawer. "Sure! What color?"

"Hot pink…or red. No wait…red."

"I don't have either of those. Here, let's just change the color of this one. It's too small for me." She held up a yellow one and jabbed it with her wand. It turned a bright, flaming red.

Lily was on her bed. She managed to grab hold of a couple of pairs of fishnet tights and was making them into a top. Barely. Well, it covered the bra and most of her midriff. With fishnets. Whatever, she was a prostitute, right? Though she wouldn't be too surprised if it became Alice's favorite top. She would have to throw it in the fire after the dance.

Amber, for some very out of character reason, had a really short skirt lying around. She was cutting it even shorter and adding red sequins on. She had been reluctant to come, even though she was just studying with Remus in the common room, but, like everyone else, was getting really into it.

"Now, all we need is some sparkly red slippers like Dorothy, with higher heels, red lipstick, and LOTS of mousse." Lily said.

Alice smiled. "Brilliant! We can get the last few things the day of the dance, and we can stick more red sequins on these shoes." She held up a pair of white 6-inch heels she had just conjured out of thin air, she couldn't do colors or patterns yet, but was great at conjuring.

"Fantastic!" Adriyana responded. She took the shoes and turned them red as well, and then went over to help Amber with the sequins. Half an hour later, Alice stood in front of the mirror, shoving tissues down her bra, and looking like a total slut. She couldn't be happier.

"So…both of us have costumes, but what about you two?" Amber said, pointing at Adriyana and Lily.

Lily said, "I'm going alone. But I'm going to dress up like…I don't know. What are some good muggle costumes? Those are fun."

"Well, you can't go as a witch, obviously…you can't do a ghost, either, nobody will see you under the sheet…you're too pretty for that… how about…um…a devil?" Amber said

"Hmm…I like it…not as brilliant as you guys' costumes, though." Lily responded.

"Wait until you see Sirius and me. Our costumes will put yours to shame!" Adriyana said.

"Can we see it?" Lily asked.

Adriyana jumped off her bed and walked over to the closet. She had an idea for what would happen if they asked her…she would show them her costume…but not all of it.

She reached inside the closet and pulled out a set of absolutely gorgeous dark turquoise robes, with flowers sewn on them. The flowers were small and made out of sparkling crystals. They were shorter than most robes, which Lily guessed was the style for teenage dress robes, but still very elegant.

"Um, Dree? That's not a costume," Alice pointed out.

"It's pretty, but not a costume. Alice is right." Amber added.

"Oh. My. God. Sound the bells of England! Alice is right!" Adriyana called out. Lily laughed. Alice threw a pillow at Lily, afraid of hurting Adriyana's dress by throwing one at her.

"Besides, this is my costume. You'll see." She said.

"But how-" Lily began.

"Hey, I won't tell you anything else. Suspense!" she waved her fingers in the air, in an excellent interpretation of the divination professor. Before Adriyana could be asked another question about her costume, she left to take a shower.

The next day, Remus, James, Peter, Amber, Lily, and Alice were gathered in the Room of Requirement before Potions, trying to figure out what Sirius' And Adriyana's costumes were. "Okay, so it has something to do with turquoise dress robes…" Lily said. "That's all Adriyana told us."

"And it could get them expelled," added James. "I overheard them talking about it last night."

"And…it's good enough to be a prank all by itself," Peter added.

"What else did you hear when you were eavesdropping on other people's private business, Potter?" Lily asked accusingly.

"Well, er, they're going to ask for a teacher's permission, so they won't get expelled, I guess, but Adriyana whispered the rest of that part, so I couldn't hear," he said.

"Maybe something happens to the dress robes. They explode or something." Amber said.

"Nah, I can't see them getting permission for that one," James said. "But you maybe getting somewhere. It has to be something they can get permission for, but can also get expelled for." The whole thing was very confusing.

"So…something happens to the costume itself," Remus said.

"I think so, yes," James put in.

"Well, it did have a lot of crystals on it," Alice added. "Does that help?"

"Possibly, but both of their costumes do whatever it is. I don't see Padfoot wearing anything with crystals on it."

"He might do it for Adriyana," Remus said, but James shook his head.

"Still, it's pretty unlikely that his costume has crystals on it. I don't think Adriyana would want to be seen with him." James replied.

A thought struck Lily. "Maybe his costume has something else on it, and when that thing and the crystals touch, like when they're dancing, something happens."

"I think that's the best idea so far, Evans." James said with a smile.

"Yeah, Lily, I think you got something!" Amber added.

Lily blushed and looked down. She saw on her watch that they had five minutes until potions. They were on the seventh floor. "Guys, we have five minutes to get to the dungeons!"

"No problem, we can do it!" James said, as if he did this all the time. Which, actually, he did.

"What? We have five minutes to travel about a mile!" she exclaimed.

James grinned wickedly. "Good thing you're with The Marauders, my dear,"

The five of them burst into the room just as the bell was ringing (Peter, of course, wasn't accepted into NEWT level potions, it was a miracle Adriyana had scraped an E and got in by studying her head off).

Professor Slughorn greeted them and they took their seats. Adriyana and Sirius shot each other knowing looks. There was only one reason Lily would walk in at the same time as James. They were working on the identity of their costumes, and what's more, they were probably way off.

"So, today we will be working on this potion, here. I showed you it on our first day of the year. It's called Polyjuice Potion. It makes the drinker transform into the body and voice of whoever's little bits and pieces they add into it. Hair, toenails, what have you," Slughorn said. "Today you won't get very far, by the time you're done at the end of class your potion will not have the muddy look of this one," - he motioned toward his own cauldron – "but will be a light orange color. Instructions are on page 97. Begin!"

After class was half over, Lily and Snape, who was also in their class, had the only perfect potions. James and Amber ran a close second, but Adriyana's potion was worse than usual. Her potion was usually only slightly sub-par, but today it was an electric shade of tangerine and much thicker tan it should be. Whether her unusually terrible potion making skills were because she was really less intelligent or because Sirius was sitting next to her remained to be seen, though it was most likely the latter. She eventually gave up on her potion and settled for staring at Sirius instead. His potion was the right color, but was spewing out black smoke that was making him and Alice, who was sitting next to him, drowsy.

By the end of class, the Everyone but Sirius, Adriyana, and Slughorn had left class, and they were ready to put their plan into action. "You ask him, Agie, he likes you more," Sirius said.

"No he doesn't!"

"He does! He thinks he may get a pay raise for doing nice things for you, whereas I knocked out Alice with my potion's fumes today!"

"Fine." she said. She walked up to Slughorn's desk. "Er... Professor? I have a question for you," she said.

"Yes, Miss Dumbledore?"

"I was just thinking and," – she pointed to his cauldron of finished Polyjuice Potion - "I wonder if I might borrow some of that?"

A/N- Oooh…what's going to happen? Only I know for sure!


	5. So, Here's How Pumpkins are Like Boys

Disclaimer: None of it is mine; it all belongs to J.K.R and Billy Shakespeare (I'll leave it up to you to guess which parts belong to who).

_Dear Diary,_

_Slughorn gave us permission! I'm not going to write anything else about it because Lily always steals my diary. He thought it was hilarious, though. The dance is tonight and I'm so excited! It's my first official date with Sirius! I can't wait!_

_Love,_

_Adriyana_

_Dear Diary,_

_Time for the dance! I didn't have time to find a date, but I look pretty good in my devil costume; it's a somewhat short red dress, those horn things, and a pitchfork. It's pretty awesome. Unfortunately, Potter is also going alone and I'm sure he'll ask me to dance with him, or snog him, or worship him for all of eternity and into the beyond. Yeah, he actually asked me to do that once. Can't he take a hint? Stupid prat._

_Sincerely,_

_Lily _

_P.S. - He filled the dungeons with mayonnaise today. Mayonnaise. In the dungeons. I kid you not. Gits._

Lily put down her diary and looked around the room. It was in a state of chaos. Amber was about to Adriyana do her makeup, though it didn't look like there would be any left after Alice was done with it. Adriyana loved giving people makeovers. She went light on Amber's makeup, but Remus would surely have a conniption fit when he saw her. She looked great in her Juliet costume, an old fashioned but somehow still sort of sexy dress in a pale pink. She held a bouquet of Adriyana's red roses, which had an absurdly long life. Lily assumed magic was used somehow.

Alice's costume, on the other hand, looked positively wild, and was the polar opposite of Amber's. Lily would have thought she looked ridiculous if not for the fact that she had already seen Frank's bizarre costume, and the two were a perfect match. Her hair was done up with so much hairspray you could throw rocks at her head and she wouldn't feel it (which they had done). Her makeup looked…well, it fit the costume, and overall, the whole thing was so overdone that it just screamed, "Halloween costume!" which was exactly what Alice was going for, she didn't want people to really think she was a slut.

Adriyana looked beautiful in her robes. The crystalline flowers sparkled in the light whenever she moved, and she had her hair tied up in a knot (which was hard, as there was so much of it). She had lined her unusually large eyes in a turquoise that made them pop and matched the shade of the robes perfectly. Pretty as it was, it still wasn't a Halloween costume. Lily smirked, thinking her theory might just be correct.

Lily herself looked great as well, her hair was down, her dress hugged her body but was soft so she still felt comfortable in it, and Amber had put a spell on her shoes so they felt like pillows. She felt very…Lily. She looked good and felt great. Not that her dress was too short, but it was almost borderline for someone as conservative as Lily.

"The dance is starting soon, guys!" Amber said. They were all ready. They started to head down the stairs when…

"Oops! I forgot something!" Adriyana called as she began running back up the stairs. They all looked at each other. Knowing this had to do with her costume/prank, they went to follow her, but just then the steps turned into a slide, like they always did when a boy stepped on them. They landed on their feet in the common room, and it was clear who the culprit was.

Sirius had his foot on the slide, grinning madly.

"Black! What the bloody hell!" Lily said, and then backed down when she remembered that he played an equal part in the secret prank. Not that that could be counted as a valid excuse, but she felt she had to be nicer to Sirius today, though, as he was her best friend's date. She noted that he wasn't wearing any odd or prankish costume, or anything that would do something when crystals touched, but he had cleaned up pretty good, Lily had to admit it.

---------------------------------

Remus' breath caught in his throat when he saw Amber. She looked absolutely gorgeous. Her loose, flowing pale pink silk dress fell to her feet, and her golden blonde hair was longer than usual, because she had magically grown it. Her eyes were shimmering with the hint of the sparkling gold makeup that they were gently brushed with.

He gasped. He had no idea how someone like him had gotten so lucky. She was absolutely perfect, every bit of her. He had a strong urge to kiss her, but he resisted, knowing how much it would embarrass her in front of her friends.

-----------------------------

Adriyana came tripping down the stairs/slide, the missing item in her hand.

It was her purse.

Sirius ran forward to catch her at the foot of the stairs, and then almost dropped her in surprise over how pretty she looked. "Wow…Adri-Adriyana, you look…wow," he stammered.

"Thanks. You look pretty good too, Sirius," she responded, looking him up and down. They smiled at each other.

James cut in, clearly not noticing the "moment" they were having. would you mind telling us what your big prank is NOW?" he said.

"Fine!" they said, glaring at him.

She opened her purse, pulling out two bottles full of…mud? Then Lily realized what it as, as did most of the others. "Oh my God, that's Polyjuice Potion!" Amber called out.

Adriyana winked at her. Sirius handed her a medium length black hair, and she gave him a longer, glistening hair. "Are you guys going to change into each other?" Lily asked.

"Of course not. That would be stupid. I mean, who would know? There would always be one of me and one of Agie at the dance…not very funny," Sirius said.

Adriyana added her hair to the potion. It sizzled and turned gold. Sirius' potion turned the fiery red-orange color of Adriyana's phoenix, appropriately named Ash. They both looked at each other and then poured the potions down their throats. Looks of pain spread across their faces. Adriyana doubled over and toppled onto the couch, as Sirius fell behind it.

A minute later, Professor McGonagall got up from the couch Adriyana had fallen on. She looked ready for the dance, wearing…..

Dark turquoise satin robes. Adriyana's robes.

"OH MY GOD! ADRIYANA?" Alice screamed. Adriyana/McGonagall nodded. Then her face broke into a wide smile. Nope, definitely not McGonagall.

Shock was written on every one of their faces. They went up to Adriyana and started laughing. Even Lily was happy her friend had come up with such a good, harmless prank. It i would /i be pretty funny to have two McGonagalls at the dance, and to see the real one's face. But where was Sirius? They were all busy ooh-ing and aah-ing when they were interrupted someone behind them clearing their throat. They all turned and saw Albus Dumbledore standing there.

i Uh-oh, they're busted… /i Lily thought. Then she noticed Albus was wearing Sirius' navy blue dress robes and his mischievous grin. It was Sirius!

Sirius/Dumbledore grabbed Adriyana's hand. She apparently didn't care that her date was the exact likeness of her Grandfather. "Lets go, then…we only have an hour to do this," she said with a mysterious smile. It looked so strange on McGonagall.

"Wait. What else are you guys going to do?" Amber asked.

"You'll see…" said Sirius, with a wink.

They walked down to the great hall together, the Marauders raving about how they couldn't wait to see everyone's reaction to the prank. Adriyana and Sirius still wouldn't tell the rest of it, though. When they got to the doors, Sirius snuck in first, quietly.

Adriyana told them, "You guys go next. You won't want to miss this," they eagerly obliged. Lily saw Sirius hidden in the corner and the real Dumbledore seated at the staff table, and the real McGonagall pulling dancing couples farther apart on the dance floor. Nothing out of the ordinary was happening, but Lily noticed that Peter, Remus, and James were trying not to stand under the floating pumpkins.

BANG.

The doors to the hall flew open, and Adriyana barged into the room and stormed up to the dance floor. She got really close to McGonagall. It was so bizarre, seeing two clones face to face, one furious and one flabbergasted. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" Adriyana screamed at the real McGonagall, who was, for once, at a loss for words. It was almost as weird seeing McGonagall scream as it was to see her grin.

"Wha…how….PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE!" she finally managed to say, calling to him across the hall.

"Yeess?" said both Dumbledores, appearing at either side of the two McGonagalls at the same time, one wearing a sly grin, one just looking amused. McGonagall's face morphed from a look of shock to one of horror. She didn't even notice Slughorn's booming laugh echoing from across the room.

"Professor, it seems as if we have an impersonator," Adriyana told Dumbledore, in a very official, McGonagall-like tone.

"YOU'RE THE IMPERSONATOR!" McGonagall yelled, losing her composure for what may be the first time in her life (none of them had seen her yell before), and pointing an accusatory and trembling finger in Adriyana's direction.

"I see. How very strange…" Dumbledore said, whimsically. He walked up to Sirius and began examining him up and down. McGonagall was flabbergasted at the nonchalant attitude Dumbledore had.

He knew. Adriyana knew that he knew. She could see it in his glittering blue eyes. It was hilarious how he let it go on for so long. The rest of her friends were in stitches, even Lily had to grab onto James' shoulder for support. She let go rather quickly when she noticed what she had done.

Two minutes left until the potion wore off. Poor McGonagall was about to have a heart attack. Or faint. "Why I never…in all my years…have I seen…," was all she could say. Adriyana looked at Sirius. Maybe this prank had gone on long enough. She missed the real Sirius already. Just when she was about to say something, Albus spoke up.

"Minerva, please. Adriyana, if you will…" he motioned towards her. The huge crowd around them fell silent and the giggling ceased.

_Wow, he was good._

"Albus, what are you saying?" McGonagall said.

"Minerva, I recognize my own granddaughter. She pulled one of my hairs out last night. I was rather curious as to why….and those are her dress robes. This fine looking gentleman must be her date," he said as he motioned toward his likeness. Sirius grinned.

As if on cue, the potion started wearing off. Adriyana's eyes grew larger, morphing back into bright purple. Her hair became lighter and longer until it returned to its original long honey brown. The painful feeling of having all her bones change shape returned.

Then as suddenly as it started, it stopped. She was Adriyana again. She looked into the familiar grey eyes of Sirius, who smiled at her. The crowd around them burst into hysterical laughter and cheers. In fact, the only one not about to fall to the ground laughing was McGonagall, who was staring incredulously at Sirius, as he smiled heart-meltingly in Adriyana's direction, and Dumbledore, who was chuckling, apparently having no problems at all with being the victim of a prank.

McGonagall seemed to think differently. "But you can both get expelled for this! How could you-" she began, still shaking, but was cut off by Slughorn, who stepped through the crowd.

"Actually, Minerva, they had my permission to do this," he said, and she looked shocked, so he continued. "Adriyana asked me after class yesterday if she could have some Polyjuice potion. After she explained this idea they had to me, I gave it to her. It was perfect, a harmless prank that was also very amusing, as opposed to something…destructive."

Peter, Remus, and James sported very guilty grins and looked up at the pumpkins. i Too late /i . McGonagall was still in shock. Everyone began to clap again, and people started coming up to the two teenagers to congratulate them, Sirius' fan club (of course he has a fan club. Are you really surprised?) in the lead. Seeing them approaching, Adriyana called out, "Hit it, Guys!" and pointed to the stage. The Weird Sisters, a band comprised of a few members of last year's graduating class, gave her the thumbs up and started to play one of its new hit songs and the entire hall broke into an insane fit of dance fever.

Adriyana looked up. Sirius was coming up to her. As much fun as the prank was, she was excited to see his smiling, handsome face again. "May I have this dance?" he asked her, bowing exaggeratedly.

"Of course you may," she responded with a laugh and took his hand.

Remus and Amber were slowly dancing in the corner, even though the band was playing a fast, upbeat song, and staring deeply into each other's eyes. "Did I tell you what a beautiful Juliet you make?" he asked her.

She smiled. "Yes, I believe you did, Romeo, in fact, you told me that I had beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear," when he had said it, the rest of the girls had marveled at the fact that he had actually known something about the person his costume portrayed. Amber thought that the fact that he had read her favorite book, for i her /i , was worth more than anything. She was so lucky to have Remus. She closed her deep blue eyes for a minute and smiled. Suddenly, she felt his soft lips on hers. She opened her eyes in shock, but didn't pull away. She wasn't often a fan of PDA, and it disgusted her to see people snogging in the halls. This kiss, however, was different, and the gesture was so sweet, light, and romantic, she really didn't care if the whole world saw it. She brushed her hand gently through his hair. They stayed that way for a while, just happy to have each other. Finally, they pulled out of the kiss.

"I love you, Juliet," he whispered, breathlessly.

"I love you too, Romeo," she whispered back.

Later that night, the band was actually playing a slow song. Sirius and Adriyana were dancing closer together than a couple on their first date should, but instead of pulling away they just kept getting closer, to the complete envy of almost every boy and girl in the room. Girls kept bumping into Adriyana, knocking her out of Sirius' arms, proud of the brief moment of separation they had caused between the couple. Boys kept walking by, muttering rather rude comments to the couple. It wasn't until one of them walked away with his face covered with purple boils that they were finally left alone.

Sirius looked at his date. She was gazing back at him and smiling. When his eyes locked with hers he felt an electric jolt run through his body. Something about her eyes drove him crazy. It wasn't that they were purple, though he loved that. They were always laughing. Even now, they had a mysterious sparkle, making him wonder what was on her mind. His eyes traveled to her lips. They were soft and shining, coated in a sweet smelling gloss. She was such a tease. He knew he shouldn't kiss her now, on their first date, but the urge was almost overwhelming, and the shiny gloss wasn't making things any better.

Little did he know, she was thinking along the same line, but she tried as hard as she could to stop thinking about what a good kisser Sirius must be. "Having fun?" she asked.

"You know I am," he smiled.

"I know, I mean, just look at your date," she laughed. She said it in a joking way, but he couldn't help thinking she was right. So far, their date had been almost perfect. She had been willing to help with a prank, she was fun, a great dancer, and they had so much in common. Not to mention, she looked beautiful tonight. Her dress robes fit her perfectly. He was amazed that she and McGonagall were the same size, but since McGonagall wasn't exactly large for her age and Adriyana was, well, really curvy, he supposed it evened out, but he tried not to let his mind (or eyes) wander. Even though this was only their first date, he could tell that this was the first relationship he was actually going to take seriously. He didn't want to mess this one up like he had with every other date he had ever been on.

Suddenly, the band broke into an extremely fast-paced hit song. She grinned at him, and, ignoring the fluttering in his stomach caused by the smile, he spun her wildly, and their dancing changed with the beat of the music.

Lily was having a fantastic time at the dance. She was only a little upset that she didn't have a date, but she was having fun alone as well. Not really alone, actually, as her friends (and admirers) kept popping in and out. She and Adriyana had a game where they looked for the best reaction to Alice's costume. So far it was a tie between Zach White, who had fallen off his chair and stared at her for a full five minutes, completely ignoring his date, and Frank, who was literally drooling when he saw her and hadn't taken his eyes off of her all night. He had a lot of bruises from tripping over stuff and hitting the floor.

As for James Potter, he had only asked her to dance a few times. Adriyana and Sirius were with her during one of the times that he did and after he had walked away, hanging his head in rejection, Adriyana turned to her and asked her if she had Prongs on her mind, then pointed at her devil horns and broke down laughing, perhaps harder than she should have. It really wasn't that funny, but Lily was just thankful she hadn't said it when Potter was still there.

She saw Sirius and Adriyana sit down next to Remus and Amber at their table when the dance ended. She told Liz, a seventh year girl she was dancing with (they were friends), that she was going to join them. Liz nodded Lily headed over to the table all three of her friends (and their dates) were sitting at. Adriyana and Sirius looked really tired; they had just been doing an extremely complicated dance that had caused a crowd to form around them again. Adriyana looked like she was having the time of her life. Thick ropes of her light brown hair had fallen out of the knot that had once been neatly tied up at the back of her head.

"What's going on, Lily?" Adriyana asked as she approached.

"I'm having fun…you?"

"Oh, yeah, this is great!" she responded. She brushed a piece of fallen hair away from her eyes.

"Where are Peter and James?" Amber asked.

"Uh-oh," Remus said.

At that moment, Peter and James came running up. "You… guys… might… want to… duck," James gasped, catching his breath. Knowing what was coming, and all of them climbed under the table just in time.

There was a loud BOOM followed by a splattering noise and cries of, "EEW!" from all of the girls in the hall. An orange gooey mess coated the ground. All four of the Marauders cracked up. Adriyana and Amber even smiled. Lily, however, looked upset, as did a lot of people in the hall. They would probably lighten up when they found out that the Marauders had done it, like they always did.

A hollow pumpkin rolled under their table. Lily picked it up and examined it. "You know," she mused, "boys are a lot like pumpkins."

Adriyana and Amber grinned, knowing what was coming next. "How so?" Amber said.

"Well, their heads are empty, their brains are mush, and after a few days, they start to smell funny," Lily said and grinned.

The joke caused all the girls to laugh, and from the corner of her eye Lily saw a very offended looking James. Amber motioned with her arms to the staff table, where Dumbledore was calling for quiet, and the group of them turned their attention back to the pumpkin-splattered hall.

"Who is responsible for this?" Dumbledore said.

James stood up proudly and saluted. As if he didn't already know.

After the dance, Adriyana and Sirius were saying goodnight in the common room. "I had…wow, I think the most fun in a long time tonight," Sirius told her.

"Me too, I'm so glad you asked me to be your date," she said.

"Well, I'm really glad you liked it. Do you want to come on another one with me?"

"Another date?"

"Yeah," he said with a grin.

"When?" she asked.

"Hogsmeade tomorrow, remember?" he said, pointing to the bulletin board on the wall and grinned wider.

"I'd love to!" she wondered vaguely how he had the power to make her act so stupid. She smiled nervously.

"Goodnight, Sirius," she said.

"Goodnight, Professor," he responded. Laughing, she returned to her rose-filled dormitory. Lily was the only one there, sitting on her bed and pulling off her red shoes.

"So, how'd it go?" she asked.

"Brilliantly. He asked me to Hogsmeade tomorrow."

She smiled. "I knew he would. Plus Potter has detention. Life is good!"

Adriyana laughed, then ran over to her bed and collapsed on it, picking up her diary.

i Dear Diary,

OHMERLIN'SBEARDITWASAMAZING! He asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him tomorrow, and I said yes in a heartbeat. After I acted like a spaz, of course. Let me tell you though, it was hard enough keeping my "no kissing until the third date" rule tonight, but tomorrow? Good thing I've got that Dumbledore family optimism.

Love ya,

Adriyana /i

A/N- This chapter isn't my best, but the next chapter is my FAVORITE so far, so don't worry, dear readers, I'll redeem myself. Review and tell me everything!

i Romeo and Juliet /i , Act 1, Sc. 5.


	6. Nicknames and Bittersweet Goodbyes

Disclaimer: I only own the OCs and the plot. Shocking, isn't it? I bet you never would have guessed.

_Dear Diary,_

_Or, more specifically, Adriyana's diary. I need my own, but I don't have any money for one now. Agie, I trust you not to read the rest of this, I needed to write it down and you're in the room, getting ready, so you could do the charm to open your diary for me. Today is the Hogsmeade trip, and Remus is going to take me into the Shrieking Shack. It's not really haunted, but it's where he goes when he… well, I still don't want to write that here. I'm flattered that he trusts me so much and that he wants to show me a part of such a… different side of him. A tiny bit of me is scared and even sad about what I may see, but the rest of me loves Remus and wants to learn as much about him as I can, and that part of him is one that I know very little about. I remember when he told me his secret. Every night that…he has to go there, I lay awake in bed, unable to sleep because I'm scared for my Remus so much, afraid that something was going to happen to him. Adriyana calls it "Remus Withdrawal," because I never see him that day or for a few days after (Madam Pomfrey won't let me in the hospital wing, no matter how much I argue. I've tried everything to get in), and she thinks I'm just lonely. I just love him so much; I couldn't stand to see something terrible happen to him. If he got seriously hurt, I don't know what I'd do. _

_Yours truly,_

_Amber_

_--------------------------------------_

_Dear Diary, _

_Now that I have freed you from Amber's clutches, I have about a minute to write something before my date, and I'm all done getting ready. My hair looks quite good straight (it better have, I spent nearly an hour doing it). Let's hope I can make it through date two without a kiss. I honestly doubt it, but I'll have to try. Who wants to have regrets about their first kiss in what they think will be an important relationship? Part of me sort of wants to just give in and kiss him, but then I tell myself this is a lesson to him, and for the good of womankind. Sirius Black, eat your heart out._

_Gotta go, _

_Adriyana_

---------------------------------------

Sirius waited for Adriyana at the foot of the stairs. She came out right on time with Amber at her side. She had clearly put a lot of time into her looks, _for him,_ and she looked fantastic. Her hair no longer fell in its trademark mess of waves, but was perfectly straight, and her purple top matched her eyes. He felt Remus' hand (Remus and James were standing next to him), on his jaw, pushing it shut again. Amber and Adriyana giggled. "Remus, are you ready to go now?" Amber asked.

Adriyana sighed. "Am, you need a pet name for him. You guys have been going out for over two years now, Remus is too... formal."

"How about…Rem?" Sirius suggested, finally able to speak again. "Chopping off the last syllable almost always works."

"Nah, that sounds weird. Like a construction worker, or a really creepy looking house elf. It needs to be cutesier. Add something to the end. Rem…y," Adriyana said. Her face lit up. "Remy! That's it!"

"If you guys are done speculating over the fine mechanics of our relationship, we kind of have a date. Do you mind if we go now?" Remus said.

"No. not unless Am promises to call you Remy from now on," Adriyana said.

"Deal," said Amber. Everyone could tell she liked the name. Even Remus was grinning.

They left through the portrait hole, and Sirius called after them. "Bye Remy!" he said, blowing a kiss. Adriyana and James laughed.

A few minutes later, Sirius and Adriyana left too, traveling through the deserted halls together. Adriyana looked surprised when instead of going to the courtyard Sirius pulled her down a different corridor. He stopped at a statue of a one-eyed witch.

"Um…Sirius? What exactly are you doing?" she asked, as he tapped the witch with his wand and muttered "dissendium!" she jumped back as the statue shifted, revealing a dark tunnel.

"Secret passage," he said. "The Marauders use this one all the time. I thought I'd give you the entire Sirius Black Dating Experience."

"Well, I'm flattered." She said, rolling her eyes and secretly hoping this passage wasn't just one of the Marauder's make-out spots or something. Not that she would mind _that_ much. Stupid third date rule. He climbed into the hole. Always up for an adventure, she jumped in after him and lit her wand.

-----------------------------------

_Poor Remy…_

Amber eyed the ripped and torn furniture, tattered curtains, and broken down doors and walls of the Shrieking shack sadly. She felt the tears well up in her eyes, and squeezed Remus' hand tighter. He noticed the tears in her eyes and pulled her towards him.

"Star, do you want to leave? I mean, I know you wanted to come here, but I can't stand to see you cry," Remus said, wrapping his arms around her. He called her star because she "lit up his night sky," and it fit so well with 'Moony'. A perfect match, just like them.

She said, "I'm fine. It's just…a good girlfriend helps her boyfriend through rough times in his life, I can't be here for you during your transformations, and I feel so terrible-"

"Hey. Stop that. I wouldn't want you down here, it's way too dangerous. Besides, I love you so much it hurts sometimes, and I couldn't ask for a better girlfriend, no matter what. It helps me to think that you're safe and warm back at the castle when I'm down here."

She sniffled and hugged him tighter. Her tears stopped falling.

"Are you sure you don't want to get something to eat?" he asked her.

"Well, now that you mention it, I wouldn't mind some chocolate at Honeydukes…"

As soon as the word 'chocolate' had escaped her lips, he pulled her off, grinning.

----------------------------------------

Adriyana and Sirius sat down at a table in a restaurant on the Main Street of Hogsmeade. It was a bright and busy place with a very good environment. Adriyana was shocked that she had never been here, or even heard of the place, before. "So, Sirius, you probably take girls here all the time."

He looked slightly offended, but shook his head. "Nah, you're the first. Most girls want to go to Madam Puddifoots."

"Ugh. I can't stand that place. It's all…too pink," she shuddered.

He smiled at her. "Wow. I'm shocked. A girl who doesn't like pink… or watching other people snog."

She laughed. "Yeah, I'm the whole package," she swirled her pumpkin juice straw around the glass and sighed.

"Yeah, you wish," he joked, even though he kind of agreed with her.

She pulled the straw out of her drink and pointed it at his face. When she blew into it, he got sprayed with sticky orange pumpkin juice. She started laughing hysterically. In response, he shook his soaked hair, showering her right back. Adriyana saw a group of girls nearby watching them. Some had tears running down their faces, and one was bawling. She recognized her as Annie Moon, the girl who was sending her howlers and was head of Sirius' fan club.

She jerked her thumb towards them. "Do they always follow you around on dates?" she said, somewhat jokingly.

"Sometimes. They have no life. Just ignore them," he said.

"Okay, I will," she said. She was having a great time on this date and wouldn't let his stupid fan club mess it up. She picked up her straw again and aimed it right at his perfectly tousled black hair, only to notice that he had just done the same thing.

She winked at him and then they both blew into the straws as hard as they could.

--------------------------------------

Lily was really glad that Alice had decided to hang out with her instead of Frank today. The two girls were having so much fun together, even though right now they were playing Lily's least favorite game, 'Run away from Potter.' Not that either of them could blame him. All day with only Peter for company… how depressing. They ran aimlessly, until they realized that they had ended up in Honeydukes. Lily kept running and crashed right into Amber and Remus, both of them were holding a big bag full of candy.

"Run away from Potter?" Amber asked.

"Yeah," Lily said, nodding. Remus laughed as he pulled her up. "I think he bought me something and was trying to give it to me. Probably had love potion included somehow."

"Somehow I don't think James would do that, Lily," said Remus. "He honestly likes you. A lot."

"Yeah, right, I'm just a challenge to him. He only likes me until I like him back," she said, and then quickly added, "Which will never happen!"

"I don't know Lily, James isn't giving up on you anytime soon," Remus said. Then, without another word, he and Amber exited the store, leaving a very confused Lily behind them.

In Zonkos, Sirius was treating Adriyana to the Sirius Black Highlights Tour of all his favorite items with a description of how he had used them. The stories he told were funny, if not a tad egotistic. Okay, a lot egotistic. But still funny. Now he was holding up a bottle with a thick, opalescent white potion inside.

"This is the magical glue we used to stick that git Thomas to the great hall ceiling. We also did a time-release charm so he would only become unattached when we undid the charm. You should have seen him cry when we put him up there….Merlin, what a spaz. We had to let him down after a few hours, though. Shame," he said. She laughed.

Sirius couldn't believe how easy it was to make her laugh. He loved her laugh. It wasn't a stupid girlish giggle like most girls, but a proper, 'I'm really having fun,' type of laugh. As she laughed, a piece of her hair fell into her face. It was starting to get wavy again, and was slightly brittle from the full-scale pumpkin juice war they had had at the restaurant. He knew that there was no other girl who could mess up his hair like that and get away with it. Not that his hair didn't still look awesome. He reached up and tucked the fallen hair behind her ear.

After a while in the shop, the pair decided to buy a whole mess of fireworks for after the Quidditch game Tuesday. They were practically a shoo-in, they had never failed to beat Slytherin yet, and the team had never played better. Then again, that could just be Captain James' bigheadedness rubbing off on them.

When they left the shop, it had started to rain. "Oh, crap. I can put an impervious charm on you," Sirius said to Adriyana. "Just lean your head into me," he added, and patted his shoulder hopefully.

"Nice try. Besides, I love the rain!" she exclaimed. "Plus, I'm already soaked in pumpkin juice; rain can only make it better."

"This is true," he said with a grin. "So, where do you want to go next?" they'd already been to almost every shop. In the end, they decided to go to Honeydukes, buy some candy, and head back through the cellar. The rest of the students were already leaving, but they had all the time they wanted, thanks to the secret passageway.

The warm, sugary scent enveloped Adriyana as she and Sirius entered the tiny shop. Sirius bought what could have been his weight in candy. He had gotten Bertie Botts, Sugar Quills, Chocolate Frogs, Ice Mice, and Fizzing Whizbees, along with a bunch of other different sweets. He had promised to share it with her, and she was shocked. She also bought her fair share of candy, including stuff for her friends, especially Alice, who had developed an obsession with Drooble's Best Blowing Gum. The four girls had a game, where you shoved a whole packet in your mouth and see who could blow the biggest bubble. It was sticky, drooling, somewhat gross fun, and Adriyana loved it.

As they descended the steps to the basement, she saw Sirius looking at her from the side and tried to look extra cute, but unfortunately she didn't notice the box of toothflossing stringmints on the steps in front of her and tripped over it, falling down the rest of the stairs. Most girls would run away, crying in embarrassment, and part of her wanted to do just that, but she didn't. Instead she laughed.

Sirius ran down the rest of the steps as fast as he could to get to her. He found her laughing on the ground, covered in the mints, and once she told him he was fine and helped her up, he couldn't help but laugh along with her. "Smooth move, Ex-Lax!" he gasped through his laughter. She gave him a playful shove as they headed for the cellar door.

"Here it is," Remus said, as he pointed at the statue of the one-eyed witch.

"This is your ultra-secret passage?" Amber asked him, tugging nervously her necklace, which had an amber stone in the shape of a heart. Remus had given it to her for her birthday.

In response, he opened the hole to the passageway. Amber had told him about how worried she got about him when he transformed, and he felt so bad, he wanted to find a place to…just be alone with her, to talk, or what have you. He knew they wouldn't be disturbed here. Plus, the full moon was coming tomorrow, and he wouldn't see her all day tomorrow, unless she convinced Madam Pomfrey to let her into the hospital wing this time.

Once she was safely in the tunnel, he climbed in after her. It was dark and kind of creepy in the tunnel, so he lit his wand and set it on the ground. "Star, what's wrong?" he said. She was looking down in a depressed way.

"Remy, I was just thinking about what happens to you on full moons. It must be so terrible, and I can't even be there for you."

"I'd rather you not, actually. I'd probably bite you and…" his voice cracked.

"Well, I worry about you back up at the castle. I wish there was some way I knew you'd be okay," she said.

"Hey. As long as I still have you, I'll always be okay. Remember that," he said. And he kissed her deeply. The kiss got stronger and stronger, and soon, they got lost in their own world, free of Lycanthropy and all of their other worries, free of everything except for them. Her fingers were tangled in his hair and his in hers. They could have stayed like that forever, but then-

"Moony, mate, sorry to bother you but you're blocking the exit,"

Amber screamed and jumped about a foot in the air in shock, which was hard because she was so close to Remus, and he accidentally pulled on her golden hair rather hard, because his fingers were so tangled in it. They turned, looking into the faces of Sirius and Adriyana; both were holding their lit wands in the air and looking rather guilty and uncomfortable.

"So this IS a secret Marauder make-out spot!" Remus heard Adriyana whisper. He would have thought it funny if he wasn't so embarrassed.

They moved out of the way, quickly, and Adriyana and Sirius scuttled out. Remus saw Adriyana wink at Amber as she left, but it didn't bother him. The girl winked so much she might as well have an eye twitch. As the passage began to close again, Remus and Amber laughed as they saw the two of them bolting down the corridor to Gryffindor tower as fast as they could. After they were out of sight, Amber turned back to Remus.

"Well, THAT was supremely awkward," Adriyana said, as she and Sirius plopped down on the comfiest couch in the common room, right by the fire.

"What?" said James, who was playing wizard's chess on the coffee table with Frank. Lily and Alice were watching and cheering Frank on, while Peter was cheering for James.

Adriyana said "None of your business," at the same time as Sirius said "We walked in on Moony and Carmichael snogging,"

She turned to him. "You have the sensitivity of sandpaper, Sirius," she said, though she said it with a grin.

James grinned. "Shouldn't you call him…Siri… now? Chopping off the last syllable almost always works," he said mockingly, as a stupid looking smile spread across his face.

She laughed. "Actually, I like that one," she grinned. "Siri…"

Sirius banged his head on the table. "You don't like Siri?" Adriyana asked.

"What? I'm just trying to get the image of the two of them snogging out of my mind. They were REALLY going at it!" he wailed. Lily threw some of the Bertie Botts she was eating at him and he slammed his head into the table again. "I mean, they didn't even notice we were there for, like, five minutes! We had to stand there and watch! I feel so… violated!" he said.

"It was like…they were trying to eat each other!" Adriyana said, sighing. Everyone laughed, and they continued talking until Remus and Amber came back through the portrait hole, a little red faced and embarrassed, and with very tangled hair, but smiling.

"Have fun, you guys?" James asked, raising his eyebrows. Amber glared at Adriyana, who pointed at Sirius. He grinned guiltily.

"We should probably get to bed now, guys," Remus said to the other three Marauders. "We have a big night… er, day… tomorrow." Amber looked at him, a very concerned expression spreading across her face.

"I should get to bed, too," she said. "I won't sleep tomorrow."

Amber and all of The Marauders except for Sirius headed up to bed. Adriyana cast a look at Frank, Alice, and Lily. Getting the hint, they all decided to go to bed too, though Lily left rather reluctantly. Adriyana immediately regretted telling her about the third date rule. Still, she left Adriyana and Sirius in the empty common room, sitting very close to each other on the same couch.

"Well, thanks for that, Siri, I had an amazing day," Adriyana turned to face him, noticing how close he was.

"Me too," he whispered in a raspy voice, as he moved his head even closer to hers.

Bells and sirens went off in Adriyana's head. Was she going to follow her pride and wait until the third date or her desires and just kiss him now? She tried as hard as she could to fight it, but she couldn't. She didn't want to. She looked at him; he was drawing closer and closer to her by the moment. The glowing fire illuminated his handsome face; his eyes shone with desire in the flickering light. Something about _this moment_ seemed special, different, perfect.

She felt her head move in along with his.

'_You should stop now, Sirius.'_ His head was telling him._ 'You should let her make the first move. You don't even know if this is what she wants.'_

'_Shut up. Look, her head is moving closer, too. She wants this just as badly as I do, if that's possible.' _

He could see the dark violet speckles that glittered in the otherwise bright amethyst of her eyes. Her lips were so full and soft. He couldn't believe he was actually, after months of waiting, going to kiss her. Their lips were almost touching now. He could feel the heat coming off of her face. He tilted his head to the right. She did the same. It was going to happen… Just a little closer…

"Agie, are you coming?" Lily's stern voice traveled down the stairs.

Adriyana jumped away from him as if she had been electrocuted.

"Agie, are you coming?" she heard Lily call.

'_Bloody hell, Lily!'_ Adriyana thought as she jumped away from Sirius. '_Why did I have to tell her about the third date rule?'_ She willed herself not to look at Sirius' face; with his soft raven black hair that was now falling into his electrifying grey eyes, so full of pain and confusion that her heart skipped a few beats. She felt tears beginning to form in the corners of her enormous eyes. He looked so desperate, so lost. They both wanted this so badly, and she wanted to let it happen, but now, she couldn't. The moment was gone.

He looked up at her, head still tilted to the side. _Merlin, why does he have to look so bloody gorgeous? Also, why the hell am I about to cry?_

He stood up from the couch, facing her, and took her hands and squeezed them gently. She looked down and hoped that he wouldn't try to kiss her again. He couldn't, not now. She didn't exactly know why, but whatever it was, he had to feel it, too. There was no more magic in the air. Didn't Sirius see that? She wanted her first kiss with him to be…worth waiting for, a kiss that she would have no regrets about, that she wouldn't want to try and fight. When she knew Lily wouldn't come barging down the stairs any minute, or make her regret what had happened with a disapproving glare for breaking her promise. She was so confused, but one thing she did know was that that time… wasn't now.

She pulled away from him, gave him a smile, whispered a goodbye, and turned for the staircase before he could see the tears that were now silently spilling down her cheeks.

"Adriyana, wait"- he called after her as she ran up the stairs. But she kept running; ready to add a very tear-stained entry to her diary and extremely glad she had bought so much chocolate.

A/N- Ohh, there's some major UST. I feel sort of bad now. That whole last scene was rewritten about a million times. It was pretty hard to get all their emotions in there. Tell me what you think! Personally, this is my favorite chapter so far. You like it? Please, please, please review! I love every single review I get.


	7. Please Keep Sexual Tension OFF the Qu

Disclaimer: I'm not JKR, and thusly, I don't own any of this. If I was JKR, Sirius would still be alive... and married to me.

**I'm SO sorry i haven't updated sooner...I'm trying not to get too ahead of the other archive i posted this story in, which takes kind of a long time to update. i'll try to make them come quicker. if you wanna help me, you know, it'll go quicker if i had anoter beta reader, because mine's really busy right now. You get a sneak preview of the chapters...**

_Diary,_

_I almost broke my three-date promise tonight. Funny thing is, I wanted to. I really wanted to. I'm sure Siri did too, I saw it in his eyes. He's still calling my name from the foot of the stairs. What happened is sort of a blur; I just know that shortly after Lily called me, I ran from the room in tears, which are still running down my face. The whole thing is so confusing. I don't even know why I'm crying, but I do know that my so called best friends haven't even asked me what's wrong yet. I have no shoulder to cry on. I'm shoulderless. I wish I had Siri's shoulder, but no. I'm too busy crying my eyes out for some unknown reason and stuffing my face with Chocolate Frogs, also known as my only friends. Maybe I'll write Siri in the morning. I'll go work on my letter once I stop crying. Oh, look. I have stopped. I should go wash my face off._

_Love,_

_Adriyana_

_P.S. - My other (human) friends are coming over to hug me now. Looks like my friendship circle is not limited to chocolates._

_-------------------------------------------------------_

Sunday morning, Sirius was getting dressed for school when the space in front of his bed… spontaneously combusted. No, really, a ball of flames erupted in front of his bed. What's more, a bird flew out of the fireball, carrying a letter. Peter almost peed himself in fright. Sirius would have laughed if he wasn't too busy wondering why the only girl he had ever cared about was running away from him. He knew he should have waited, but truthfully, he would explode if he waited any longer to kiss her. Then she ran. She must think he's the same guy he'd been trying so hard not to be.

"Hey, Ash, what's Agie got to say?" James said to the bird. Sirius' stomach filled with butterflies at the sound of her name. He hadn't told the rest of the Marauders what had happened last night, in fact, he wasn't sure he even knew. Then he remembered that Adriyana had a phoenix, and he noticed that the letter this phoenix was holding was addressed to him. His name was written on the front of the envelope. In purple ink.

He darted over to the bird as fast as he could, ripped the letter from it's claws and tore it open:

_Siri,_

_If you're as confused as I am about last night then you must be…exceptionally confused. I'm sorry for running off on you; I didn't exactly mean to do that. I just wanted to tell you that…I don't want you to think I didn't want to kiss you last night. That would be one of the biggest misconceptions in history. I really like you, and I have so much fun with you, Siri, and unless you're lying to me, you have fun with me, too. My point is, I really, really want to go on a third date with you. Really. As soon as possible… let's just say I'm tired of waiting._

_-Adriyana_

Sirius stared at the letter, open-mouthed, but thrilled.

_Tired of waiting? She did want to kiss me!_

Sirius put on his clothes and, an hour later, headed down to the Great Hall where he saw Adriyana sitting with Amber, Lily, and Alice eating breakfast. There was a spot next to her that was empty, and he hurried over to it. The other three Marauders came a few minutes later, and joined the group. The eight of them enjoyed what, in Sirius' opinion, was the best breakfast ever, especially because he and Adriyana kept exchanging secret glances and smiles. When the owls came in, James' owl brought him a parcel of cookies from his mum, and then (on James' command) flew over Snape's cereal and pooped in it. The icing on the cake, however, was when a huge flock of post owls came in, and dropped about a dozen howlers in front of Adriyana. She burst out laughing. Sirius felt a rush of guilt. No doubt they were from his stupid admirers, saying he was too good for her, or something equally ridiculous.

"Agie, you really should open those," James said, with a wicked grin. He loved anything that caused a scene.

Sirius glared at Annie Moon, who was staring at him admiringly from the Ravenclaw table. He made a very rude hand gesture at her and she burst into tears. His angry expression melted into a soft one as he turned to Adriyana. "I can't believe she keeps doing this, Agie," he told her sympathetically.

"I keep telling you, I think these are hilarious. Wait until you hear them."

"I don't want to, though," he responded.

It looked like a light bulb went off in her head. She handed each of the eight of them, along with some nearby Gryffindors, one of the howlers. "Well, this doesn't take a genius. Lets all open ours at the same time, since Siri doesn't want to hear them. The shouts should all cancel each other out," she said. At that moment, the howlers started to smoke at the edges. "Ready... NOW!" and they all broke the seals on their letters.

The noise was deafening. Thankfully, Adriyana was right. None of the words the letters screamed out were even merely distinguishable over the screams of the other letters. The goblets around them all fell over, spilling pumpkin juice on the clean white tablecloth. The windows shook violently. The eight of them would have gone deaf, had they not all cast bubble head charms around their heads to filter out the noise, and Sirius looked at Adriyana. When she winked at him, he felt his insides do a flip-flop. Then he looked up at the staff table. McGonagall did not look amused. In fact, she was still searching for the person who sent the howlers. She was the only one in the Great Hall not to cover her ears somehow, and was listening intently to the screams, trying to identify the voice of the culprit. She caught Sirius' eye, and he pointed directly at Annie. A scandalized look spread across McGonagall's face, and once the howlers had stopped McGonagall got up and pulled Annie out of the hall. More indistinguishable screaming ensued. The only thing they heard was, "10 points from Ravenclaw for every howler you sent!" There was a collective "ohhhhh," from the students from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor as a rather large amount of sapphires left the Ravenclaw bulb, leaving it nearly empty, save for a few tiny gems. Needless to say, Annie was not welcomed back very heartily at the Ravenclaw table. In fact, people started throwing porridge at her. Nobody tried to stop them.

Sirius looked over at Adriyana, and her lopsided grin made his hear flutter. Definitely the best breakfast ever.

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It seemed like two days passed in no time at all, though they were a dateless, kissless two days for a certain couple. The morning of the game, all of the 6th year Gryffindors were sitting back down at the same table again, Amber, Adriyana, James, and Sirius in their scarlet Quidditch robes, because it was Lila (the keeper)'s idea to wear them around all day to intimidate the Slytherins.

Sirius watched as Adriyana got up from her spot in between Amber and Lily and picked up her plate. Since he had been hanging around with her a lot over the last two days, he fully expected her to move next to him. He was, however, sadly mistaken. She kept walking down the hall; just a little farther down the table sat a scarlet-clad Joey Abercrombie, Sirius' fellow beater. He looked more than a little worse for the wear (a bit like Moony looked today, because the full moon had been on Sunday). Joey was as pale as a ghost and didn't appear to be eating any breakfast. Adriyana walked over to them and plopped herself down between him and his friend, dropping her plate decisively, as if she did this everyday.

Joey's friends looked pretty surprised to see someone like Adriyana sit down with them. People like Adriyana didn't sit with third years, but Adriyana wasn't most people. She just waved at them and started piling food in Joey's plate nonchalantly and trying to feed it to him. Sirius motioned to James, and they both got up and moved down there as well.

"Joey, you have to eat something," said James consolingly as he sat down.

"I can't. What if I throw up?"

"That's a good thing!" Sirius added.

"Yeah, make sure you're flying over a Slytherin," Adriyana added. The third years (especially the boys, whether they had sick minds or just liked Adriyana) started laughing. "What? We can't get fouled for that! It's a brilliant plan, if I do say so myself!"

While Joey had his mouth open, laughing, she shoved a forkful of sausage in it. He sputtered but reluctantly swallowed it. She wasted no time in shoving in another forkful.

"You're not eating anyfing!" Joey exclaimed through his forced meal.

She grabbed a piece of toast off of the table and ate it. "Happy?" She said, "Plus, I already ate. I was here earlier."

Then they heard Remus' hoarse (from howling? Who knows?) voice down the table. "What are you guys doing gown there?"

"We're eating with our new midget friends!" James called. Adriyana kicked him in the shin under the table. "Ow! What?"

"They're not midgets, James! Be nice!"

He looked at them and shrugged. Adriyana shoved more food in Joey's mouth. "Okay, I get it! I'll eat!" Then he picked up his own fork and ate some eggs. "Hmmmm?" he said. She looked satisfied and nodded.

"Hurry up, we have to be out there soon," James said. "Are you two ready to go?" he pointed to Adriyana and Sirius.

They nodded and stood up. Adriyana motioned to Amber down the table, and she said goodbye to everyone and joined them as they walked out of the Great Hall. "Ready, guys?" she asked as she joined them.

"Yeah! They are so going down!" Adriyana said, jumping so that a few long maple tresses fell into her face.

James and Sirius agreed. Adriyana brushed the hair away from her eyes and Amber giggled. "What?" Adriyana asked her, confused.

"You're right. Red looks really bad with your eyes," Amber said, pointing at the scarlet Quidditch robes Adriyana wore.

"Fine, red is not my color! Is insult Adriyana time over yet?" she said, throwing her hands up in the air. Sirius bit his lip, and the four of them got their brooms from their trunks in Gryffindor Tower and headed out to the field.

Joey Abercrombie looked a lot better when Sirius saw him again in the locker room for James' pep talk, and he had brought extra toast for all of them and told the three of them that his friend said that he wanted the three of them to eat there every day. Sirius felt a twinge of jealousy, remembering how the boys had been drooling over Adriyana. He still wanted his kiss so badly he thought he would burst.

The Gryffindor team walked onto the field to tumultuous applause, and took their places on the field. The Slytherin team looked menacing, but none of the Gryffindors were intimidated, except Joey and possibly Amber, as it was her first game as well. She relaxed a bit when she heard Remus' voice over the speakers:

"And here's the Gryffindor team. They have just two new members this year, Joey Abercrombie and Star…er, I mean Amber Carmichael."

Adriyana seemed to have collapsed on the field, laughing. Amber was blushing too much to glare at her, but her face was nothing compared to Remus', which, thankfully, nobody could see.

The two girls regained their composure and took their places on the field. James walked up to the Slytherin captain and they shook hands (which really looked more like they were trying to crush each other's fingers), and then the game was on.

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"AND IT'S PRONGS WITH THE QUAFFLE! HE'S HEADING TOWARDS THE SLYTERIN GOALPOASTS! HE SHOOTS…AND SCORES! GRYFFINDOR NOW LEADS BY 140 POINTS! ALL RIGHT, PRONGS!"

Remus' voice rang out over the pitch, but Adriyana was too busy squinting around for the glint of gold that was the snitch to hear anything except the score, which was 200-60 Gryffindor. Adriyana was aware of the fact that the lead they had wasn't big enough so to ensure Gryffindor a victory should she fail to catch the snitch. On the bright side, she almost never missed, and all the Gryffindors were playing amazingly, so there was bound to be some celebration even if they lost. Ten of their goals had been scored by James, and Sirius and Joey had hit some ace bludgers, though Joey sadly had yet to vomit on anyone. Amber was doing great for her first game, she had scored five goals. As for Adriyana herself-

_The snitch. There's the snitch._

She sped after it, hand outstretched. She heard a whooshing noise behind her. She knew it was the Slytherin seeker. He rammed her from the side and she rammed him back. They were about a foot away from the snitch, both were neck and neck, hands outstretched, reaching for the fluttering ball. Then she remembered. _James' play_. It would work _perfectly_ here. She whipped her head around, looking for Sirius and hitting the Slytherin seeker with her long hair at the same time. When she saw him she screamed his name.

"SIRIUS!" He whirled around at the sound of her voice and almost fell off his broom. She made a hand signal with the one hand not outstretched towards the snitch. He immediately understood, and from the corner of her eye, she saw Sirius whack a bludger with all his might towards the two battling seekers.

What happened next was as if it was in slow motion. Adriyana, who was closest to the bludger, stopped reaching for the snitch and did a sort of handstand on her broom in the air. The bludger flew through the empty space her arm had occupied a split second ago and slammed into the Slytherin seeker, knocking him far off course. Adriyana did a flip back onto her broom, and her hand landed right on the snitch, closing over it. She raised her hand in the air triumphantly.

She wasn't paying attention to just how closely the crowd was watching that play. As soon as her snitch-filled fist was raised into the air, the stands erupted. She could barely hear Remus' calls of "ADRIYANA CAUGHT THE SNITCH! THAT WAS AMAZING! HOLY CRAP!" –McGonagall was too happy to reprimand him-"GRYFFINDOR WINS 350-60! HA! FACE! GO ADRIYANA! GO PADFOOT!" over the fans' voices. She was grinning from ear to ear, and Gryffindor was celebrating like it had won the cup, not just a game. As she went to join her team, celebrating in the center of the field, she realized that this was one of the best moments of her life.

And only one thing would make it better.

She landed and ran up to the team. James was screaming about her amazing utilization of the play, tears threatening their appearance in her eyes, Amber, Lila, and Liz seemed to have started some sort of cheer/dance. Joey was bouncing around, reenacting the face on the Slytherin seeker's face when she caught the snitch. Sirius was just standing there, waiting for her.

Perhaps he had waited long enough. She had made up her mind.

She ran into his arms, and he pulled her into a tight hug. After a second, she pulled away slightly, wrapping her arms around his neck. She looked into his smoldering grey eyes and ran her fingers through his silky black hair. She smiled. Then, suddenly, she brought her lips to his and finally, finally kissed him.

-------------------------------------------------------

Sirius was absolutely shocked, but this was also the best kiss he had ever had. It was sweet but at the same time deep and passionate and even somewhat romantic, like a first kiss should be. Plus, he really liked surprises, not to mention how much he liked Adriyana. He could tell from the kiss that she had wanted it just as badly as he had.

There was a gasp from the stands, but neither of them heard it. Then James started clapping for both of them. Joey was the first one to join him. Soon nearly everyone was clapping, including Albus Dumbledore, who didn't seem to mind his granddaughter kissing someone in the middle of a Quidditch pitch. The pair still didn't notice. Amber looked slightly shocked that Adriyana's first kiss was so public…but then, that's the type of person she is. If she decides it's time to kiss Sirius, nothing else matters.

As Sirius pulled away and looked into Adriyana's eyes, glittering blissfully, he could see that clearly nothing else did.

Later that night, in the common room, Gryffindor was celebrating its amazing win by having a totally bitchin' party. Someone had magicked a dance floor into the middle of the common room, where Lily had set up a device that played muggle records, and, courtesy of the Marauders, there was an obscene amount of food and beverages. Frank, who had a magical camera, had taken pictures of the highlights of the game, such as when James had bounced the quaffle off of Steven Higgs' head and it went through a hoop and scored, Lila's phenomenal save where she caught the quaffle between her feet, Adriyana and Sirius' now legendary play, and, of course, the kiss.

Adriyana was dancing with Lily when Sirius pulled her arm and asked her if she would take a walk with him. Lily motioned for her to go, and she nodded eagerly. They left the common room.

They kept walking until they reached the grounds, sharing a comfortable silence. The sky was dark but had a heavy splattering of stars. It was chilly out, which wasn't so inconceivable, as it was November. Sirius took his cloak off and put it on Adriyana's shoulders. He was now freezing, but it was worth it, because when Adriyana saw how cold he was, she wrapped her arms around him tightly. Now she could probably tell how fast his heart was beating. She was looking up at him now, and her hand reached up and brushed the fallen ebony hair out of his eyes.

"You have the most brilliant eyes, Siri," she said, running her hand down his cheek. If his heart beat any quicker, it would most likely explode.

He looked back into the glittering violet eyes that were staring at him. "Are you kidding me? Your eyes are beautiful," he said. He saw her smile in the darkness.

He squeezed her hand, and noticed that it was trembling slightly. He doubted it was because of the cold that she was shaking. He pressed his lips on top of hers, moving them softly. His hands traveled to her hair, and got tangled in the messy waves. He breathed in her scent; a mixture of peppermint, vanilla, strawberry shampoo, and the faint perfume of red roses. He loved how her lips felt against his, he reveled in their softness and sweetness as he felt her hands wrap around his neck and pull him in closer to her. They lost track of time as they stood together, just them and the stars.

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When Lily saw Adriyana and Sirius return through the portrait hole, grinning and holding hands over an hour after they had left, she was actually glad her friend had broken her promise. Adriyana hadn't stopped glowing all day. Apparently Sirius wasn't as bad as Lily had thought. Anyone who could make Adriyana that happy had to have more than a little good in them.

The Gryffindors kept partying until around midnight, when McGonagall woke up (probably thanks to Adriyana and Sirius' fireworks show, which was so cool it made up for being the cause of the stop to the party), came in and cleared them out, reminding them of the classes they still had tomorrow. They left reluctantly, Lily watched as Adriyana gave Sirius a quick kiss goodnight and then head for the stairs, much happier than she had looked the last time she had been in that situation. Before she left, Lily saw her take the poster of the kiss from James, because he and Peter were sneaking a copy of all the posters to the Slytherin common room, to "add a splash of red and gold," and took it up to their dormitory. James and Peter walked past Lily, muttering something about permanent sticking charms. Lily decided that maybe now was a good time to head up to her dormitory, before she exploded. When she walked into their room, Adriyana was hanging the poster on the wall.

"Agie…" she began, laughing and shaking her head.

"Hey, I like it. If you don't then maybe we can get that one of James up here so you can stare at that all day. Besides, it matches the roses," she said, pointing to the red robes her photographic self and Sirius were wearing and then motioned towards the room still filled with Sirius' roses. The girls loved them so much, for their smell, their beauty, and their welcoming presence. They would be happy if they never died, which may actually happen, knowing Sirius.

"What! I do not like Potter!" Lily said, her temper rising.

"Sure, whatever…" Adriyana said unconvincingly, collapsing on her bed and pulling out her diary.

_Dear Diary,_

_New rule: Quidditch games count as third dates. After all, we were both playing together, right? Siri is a phenomenal kisser, like, better than all the guys I've ever dated put together (which is not an incredible amount, but still). I don't want to think about if he's a natural or just well practiced. Lily still won't admit that she likes James, which she clearly does. Someone should inform her that denial is not just a river in Egypt (get it? Denial, the Nile? I crack myself up sometimes). She would probably slap the person who told her, though. She's so stubborn. I got around to trusting Siri pretty quickly. Maybe I'm just weak, or maybe I need to devise a brilliant plan to get them together… Maybe Siri can help. Maybe I can do that later. Sorry, I'll stop now. Maybe._

_Love and Kisses (finally!),_

_Adriyana_

_-------------------------------------------------_

A/N- I've been trying really hard to make Adriyana not a Mary-Sue, and make her as down-to-earth as possible. Now you see why she needed to play Quidditch. This chapter was kind of hard to write, so please review and tell me what you think, that sexy button that says "GO!" on it needs some love...


	8. Stage 1: Denial

Disclaimer: These characters (minus Adriyana and Amber) belong to JKR and I make no money off of them. Wouldn't that be wicked awesome if I did, though?

**This chapter is dedicated to Mina, my beta, and NIKE Godess of Victory, my most faithful reviewer, who thinks this story is "tricked out and super cool."**

_Dear Diary,_

_There is NO WAY I like James Potter. Agie seems to think I do. I guess she hasn't been listening to me for the last five years, and seems to think I still have that little girly crush I had on Potter during our first year, before I realized what a prat he was. How could I possibly have liked someone so arrogant and self-centered? I mean, guys are afraid to date me. I have what Agie calls the "James Potter Factor." Guys think that if they ask me on a date, they'll end up being the victim of the Marauders' latest prank, such as getting glued to the ceiling. Fine, so I was wrong about Sirius, he's actually not so bad, but what could anyone possibly see in James Potter? Okay, so he's brave, good at Quidditch, and rather fit looking. Big deal. Wait, did I just write that?_

_Going to wash my mouth out with soap,_

_Lily_

_-----------------------------_

_Dear Diary,_

_I still can't believe he's finally mine. All mine! I would have never thought Sirius Black would be the first guy like me for ME…In fact, I think I'm the first girl he's ever done that for. If only you could see the stupid grin on my face right now, but once again we run into the issue of you being and inanimate object. Oh, and Lily has been acting rather strangely lately, like she's distracted. She clearly had a thing for someone. I suspect this someone to be James; otherwise she'd tell me her crush's identity. I don't even think she sees it yet, though (either that or she's drowning in The Nile…I'm good). For the smartest girl in our year (and possibly the whole school), there sure are a lot of things she doesn't realize._

_Love,_

_Adriyana_

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Lily sat on her bed that morning, already fully dressed. She was checking her Potions essay for errors before class. She had finished the essay the day it was assigned, but hadn't gotten to looking it over yet because Adriyana had "borrowed" it. Seeing no errors, Lily tucked the essay back into her school bag and looked around the room. Amber was still asleep, and Lily had no inclination to wake her up. She was rather fond of all of her body parts being in their right places, thank-you-very-much. Amber was NOT a morning person, to put it lightly.

As Lily stared at Amber, Adriyana walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, hair dripping wet from the shower. The grin she was wearing seemed to be permanently stuck on her face ever since the Quidditch game. She grabbed her Hogwarts uniform and closed herself in the curtains around her bed (people tended to barge into their room, mostly younger girls in need of advice). And, of course, as Adriyana changed, Alice came back into the dormitory, swinging the door wide open enthusiastically. She had just come back from meeting Frank in the common room. He was excellent at Charms and was helping her with the assignment that was due that day. It was no surprise to any of them that Alice had put it off until a few hours before it was due, procrastinator that she was.

"Morning, all!" she said cheerfully, looking at the schedule of classes the girls had posted on the wall. She let out a squeal of delight. "Only double Charms and DADA today. Oh, and History of Magic. Bugger."

"Well, at least I can get some sleep there, I'm so tired," Adriyana said, jumping out from behind the curtains of her bed, wearing her uniform and trying to properly knot her red and gold tie. She picked up the Quick-Quotes Quill she always brought to History of Magic and threw it in her bag.

"Er…do you guys reckon we should wake Amber?" Lily asked, jerking her thumb toward the sleeping figure in the fourth bed.

"Yeah… I'll do it," Alice said, and Adriyana tossed her an aerosol can with a little plastic horn on top of it. "I can't believe this is the only way to wake her up," she said. She hopped onto Amber's bed, brought the horn somewhat close to her face, and pushed down on the button. A loud honking noise resonated throughout the room. One of the vases of roses on the dresser fell, and luckily Lily caught it. Amber scrunched up her face and tumbled out of bed, pillow pulled around her ears. She let out a piercing scream before tumbling out of bed and swearing loudly at all of them.

Remus heard the scream all the way from the boys' dorm. "Amber?" he called, jumping about a foot in the air. After all, werewolf ears are sensitive, especially when it comes to love.

"Chill out, mate, the girls use an air horn to wake her up. They showed me last summer, when my parents were out on an Auror mission, and I stayed at Agie's with them. Nothing else does it. She like…hibernates," James told him, unsuccessfully trying to comb his black hair. Remus seemed to calm down and he smiled dreamily at the thought of his Amber sleeping peacefully, eyelashes fluttering, her golden hair fanned over her pillow.

Sirius was tying his Gryffindor tie with a huge smile on his face. He looked in the mirror. His black hair was tousled and his grey eyes shone brightly, like they had been ever since Adriyana had kissed him.

"Thinking about her, mate?" James asked.

"She's an amazing kisser," Sirius responded, as if this was the answer he was looking for. "Don't you guys think we make a great couple? I do."

"I bet Lily's a great kisser, too," James said. He didn't really want to think about Adriyana that way; she was like a sister to him, and she had been his best friend until he met Sirius and the other Marauders.

Peter walked into the room to see his three friends zoned out, with stupid and delirious grins on their faces. "Oh, bugger. I REALLY need a girlfriend," he said.

James snapped out of it. "Wormtail, if you ever get a girlfriend, I'll eat ten Galleons worth of Cockroach Clusters." There was a specific reason girls didn't like Peter. He was reasonably good-looking, and wasn't always as daft as he looked…the rest of the Marauders just overshadowed him most of the time. No. the reason girls avoided Peter was because he smelled like moldy cheese. Gross. Though, james resolved, Peter was his friend, and now that the other three Marauders were taken (he counted himself because he wouldn't date anyone but Lily) he had a fair shot.

Now if only they could get him to use some cologne or something.

"Siri! Where are you?" Adriyana's voice sounded from the foot of the stairs, and Sirius bolted for the door.

James shook his head. "Oh, Padfoot."

He started laughing and finished getting dressed. Ten minutes later, the other three boys went down the stairs to find Adriyana and Sirius snogging on the couch. "Not fond of privacy, those two," Remus said to James. Adriyana's eyes opened in shock at the voice, she jumped up, and the red rose tucked behind her ear fell to the floor. Sirius took the time while she bent down to pick it up to glare at Remus, who started whistling innocently.

"Chill, Siri, we have to go to class, anyway," she said, as she fixed the rose back into her hair. Lily motioned to her from the door. Usually the girls and the Marauders walked to class with their own gender groups. "Catch you guys on the flip side," Adriyana said as she gave Sirius a quick kiss and ran after them.

After lunch, Adriyana was walking to History of Magic when she felt a set of arms wrap around her from behind. They felt strangely unfamiliar, definitely not Sirius' arms. She realized who it was when she saw the person's blue and grey tie dangling in front of her face. She saw Sirius run up to them, looking disgusted.

"What's shakin', baby?" came a husky voice in her ear.

"Thomas, get the hell off me! Can't you take a hint? They haven't been very discreet or anything!" she yelled, wriggling around in his arms and trying to break free, but he did not relent. Her hand traveled to her pocket and wrapped tightly around her wand, but he was too thick to notice. Sirius pulled out his wand, too, though he wasn't so sure what to do. Adriyana was moving around so fast while trying to escape Thomas' grip that he could easily hit her with any spell he tried to throw at him.

Adriyana finally broke out of his arms and ran back to Sirius, who put his arms around her. A tingling sensation went up her spine at the touch, but she was also relived to feel his warm and familiar embrace and she pulled him tighter for a second.

"So…you have a boyfriend now," Broderick said, glaring at Sirius. Adriyana looked up at Broderick.

"That's right," Adriyana said, feeling a swooping sensation in her stomach. _Boyfriend._ She smiled.

"Do you mess around?" he asked her.

"What!...No!" she said incredulously. Sirius lifted his wand again.

"Well, would you--" but he was cut off when a blast of light shot from Sirius' wand and hit him in the face. His dark brown hair turned into what looked like really enlarged worms. Broderick, who was a total coward, started running around, screaming, and trying to pull them out of his head. It was quite a sight.

"Leave her the bloody hell alone!" Sirius yelled over Broderick's girly screams.

Adriyana had had enough of this. She wanted so badly for Broderick to just leave her alone. She pulled out a weird-looking marker from her bag and motioned Thomas over to her with her finger seductively. He gave Sirius a victorious grin and walked over. He didn't see her wink at Sirius and was thoroughly shocked when she pushed him up against the wall because he really was that naive.

"Close your eyes," she whispered, and he did. She put the marker to his forehead and managed to write some rather rude phrases in her bubbly letters before he noticed what was happening and pulled away.

She and Sirius took off down the hall. She turned back to him as she ran and yelled, "It's permanent marker, dude!"

They walked into History of Magic together, which they had with the Ravenclaws, and took their usual seats next to Lily and James, respectively. Adriyana took out her Quick-Quotes Quill and put her head down on her desk.

Class was very boring today. What a surprise. Adriyana's Quill was scribbling away and she seemed to be asleep. Sirius was staring at her, the way her hair fell over her face, the way her lips were pulled into a smile, even when she slept. Suddenly, one of her vibrant eyes popped open and her smile grew wider. She winked at him and mouthed, "Busted!" He jumped back, surprised that she had caught him staring.

He ripped off a piece of his parchment (which he wasn't using to take notes anyway) and wrote her a message. He balled it up and threw it. She caught it easily and opened it.

_Maybe I was just staring at you because you have a huge bogey hanging out of your nose!_

Really she didn't, but it was a laugh to see her hand reach up and brush her nose with her sleeve. When she realized there was nothing there, Sirius started laughing. She scowled at him, and then smiled. She dipped her regular, manual quill into the pot of violet ink next to her and wrote:

_You were still staring at me!_

She pointed to the note, and then to him and Sirius aimed his wand at it.

"_Accio Parchment!"_ The note came zooming over as he said the charm. He read it and smiled at her use of purple ink. He put his own quill to the page and wrote a response underneath hers.

_Do you want to go to the kitchens tonight?_

But when Adriyana got the note, that wasn't what it said. The piece of paper she opened had no remnants of their previous conversation, just a single message in a handwriting that looked a lot like Sirius', but she didn't think it was. First of all, he had spelled her name wrong. Also, she highly doubted he would say what was on this note:

_Adriana, you're so obnoxious. This really isn't working out for me._

Sirius couldn't have written this, he just couldn't. Sirius would never write that...or even spell her name wrong. Still, it was enough to make her stomach drop. She looked up at him, her eyes apparently showing her fear, because he looked confused. she passed the note back to him. As he read the note, his expression changed from confusion to disgust. He mouthed, "I didn't write this!" and Adriyana's face spread into a relieved smile. If Sirius hadn't written it though, who had?

Sirius had a hunch. There was only one person in the school who was enough of a prat that they would learn how to copy his handwriting and switch the notes in midair without anyone noticing. He turned to the table Annie Moon was sitting at, where she was looking down and focusing a bit too hard on her work. He ripped off another piece of parchment.

_Moon, you prat, leave my girlfriend and me alone. She's too smart to fall for your childish tricks. It's not like I would EVER pick you over her, so just give it up, and stop following me around._

He lobbed the note over to her table. Hard. It hit her in the cheek and she let out a whimper. Annie's friends squealed delightedly because she had gotten a note from Sirius. They all had a bit of an obsession with him. As Annie read the note, her brown eyes grew wider. She turned the paper over and began to write.

Sirius and Adriyana were continuing their old conversation on a new piece of paper. No doubt their original note was in Annie's possession and was going to be passed around at the next Sirius Black Fan Club meeting because he had written on it. When Annie's note landed next to him, he just brushed it aside. But Annie wasn't going to give up that easy. Just as Sirius was writing Adriyana about what their next date should be, Annie's note began attacking him. Adriyana was looking at the note, motioning for him to open it. Finally, he relented and picked it up. It said:

_I can't leave you alone, Sirius. I think I love you. Siriusly._

Sirius couldn't help it, he burst out laughing. i Loves /i him? She's got to be kidding! The thing that really got him laughing was the pun, though. He looked up and saw that everyone in the class was staring at him, most likely because he had fallen to the floor from laughing so hard. Annie looked terrified, almost in tears.

_'Bit overdramatic, that one…_' Sirius thought as he got back onto his chair.

James was looking at the note with a confused expression on his face. Sirius passed him the note. Annie pointed her wand at it, attempting to get it back, but James had already turned around. It only took a few seconds before he burst out laughing as well. Adriyana and Lily motioned for the note, and they passed it over. Annie looked absolutely horrified.

After class, Sirius noticed Annie tailing him as he exited the room, so he and James started walking next to Adriyana and Lily on their way to lunch. Annie was still behind them.

James saw her, too. "Hey, Sirius. I have a serious question to ask you."

"Seriously? What is it?" Lily asked.

"Seriously, Evans. The serious question is for Sirius."

"You have a serious problem, all of you," Adriyana said.

"Yes, let's all be serious so I can seriously ask Sirius this serious question," James said.

"Yes, let's all be serious," Lily said.

"I'm always Sirius!" Sirius said.

"Sirius! This question is serious!"

"Okay, I'm seriously listening. What's up?"

"Do you like my shoes?" James asked. Annie just scowled at them and walked over to the Ravenclaw table.

Sirius was surprised to see Lily laugh along with Adriyana. Normally she despised all of James' jokes. She was probably just doing it for Adriyana or something. Still, he would never hear the end of it from James. Sure enough, he was right. All day, it was, "Padfoot, did you see the way her eyes glow when she laughs?" and, "Do you guys think this means she likes me?" and even, "Do you reckon I should ask her out again? Will she say yes this time?"

"She won't, Prongs. Shut up now," Sirius finally said.

"Maybe you should just give up on her, Prongs. There are plenty of other girls who will take you," Remus added.

"But I don't want any of those other girls! They're not Lily! She's so sweet and beautiful and…"

The rest of them knew to tune out at that point. James would ramble on about Lily for a while, and they had heard it all. Sirius wanted to be there for his best friend, because he clearly felt the same way about Lily as he did about Adriyana. He couldn't imagine how hard it would be for him if Adriyana didn't feel the same way.

"Snickerdoodle," Sirius called as they reached the portrait hole, which swung open. The Marauders headed up to their room. Sirius flopped down on his bed and lazily pulled out a chocolate frog and bit into it. James sat on his bed, deep in thought, Peter was attempting to do his homework, and Remus was reading a book. Finally, James opened his mouth to speak.

"Moony…what's it like to be in love?" he asked quietly. Sirius looked up interestedly from the chocolate frog card he was reading.

Remus looked shocked at the question, but, being a good friend, he answered willingly. He seemed to be thinking very hard. "Well, I guess it's like…" He searched his mind a for a while, then came up with an answer. "When you love someone the way I love Amber, you have an unexplainable attraction to them, but I'll try. You love every bit of that person, even their flaws. You notice little things about them that nobody else does. You get this weird feeling whenever you see them, like your stomach does a flip-flop, and you look at them and are like 'Wow, that's the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with.' You can't be happy unless they are. They mean everything to you."

"Wow…that was deep, Moony. Thanks," James said.

"Anytime, Prongs…why, do you think you feel that way about Lily?" Remus asked.

"I don't know…I really don't. That's basically the way I feel about her, but she doesn't feel the same way about me. Is it possible to love someone if the feeling isn't mutual? I'm also sort of afraid to love her, because she doesn't love me back," James said sadly.

Around this time, Sirius would usually make a snide comment about how little Prongsie was growing up, but he was currently lost in thought. Was it just him, or did love as Moony had described it sound a lot like the way he felt about Adriyana? Did he love her? He immediately began to get scared. Did he even know what love was? He wasn't sure, because he didn't know if he had ever loved anyone before. He had nobody to compare how he felt about her to. Not his family, that's for sure. During that summer, he had left his family forever because he couldn't stand them anymore. He hadn't loved any of the other girls he had dated, either. There was just nothing there. Then it hit him. The Marauders. Yeah, he could say that he loved them. They were like his brothers, the closest thing he had ever had to a real family, especially James and his parents.

His feelings for Adriyana, however, were different. He wasn't even sure if he was in love with her…at least not yet. If he wasn't, he would be soon, but if there's one thing he had already learned about his relationship with her, it was to take it slow. What he felt for her was so different from what he felt for his friends, and yet just as strong. He cared about her, he was absolutely positive about that. He had fallen for her like he never had for any other girl. But was it love?

No way. Sirius Black couldn't fall in love. Could he?

A/N- Well, there's chapter eight! Okay, it may seem fast, but don't forget Sirius has liked Adriyana for months, and he's a very impulsive person. This turned out so differently from the way I had originally intended; I moved all the stuff that was going to be here to a later chapter.


	9. Neglecting Friends is Good for Them?

Disclaimer: Not mine. Or yours, probably. Unless you're JKR. I doubt she reads much, if any, fan fiction, but if she's reading this one and she made it all the way to chapter nine…then she owns it. And that's really wicked cool, you know, that she's reading it.

_Dear Diary,_

_Today is December 1st, the day of the next Hogsmeade trip. Everyone is going Christmas shopping today, but I bought all my gifts during the last Hogsmeade trip, so I'm staying in Gryffindor Tower today. It's the last trip before Christmas Holiday, and Mum and Dad are going to Paris, so I'm staying here. Also, there's this really cute guy in our year in Ravenclaw. I can't believe I've never noticed him before. His name's Jeremy Howes. He has the most adorable smile ever, maybe even nicer than Pot—_

_I think I'm coming down with something. Like insanity._

_(Insanely) Yours,_

_Lily_

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"Wait, Prongs, why aren't you coming to Hogsmeade?" Sirius asked as they sat in the common room that morning.

"I already told you, I got my gifts for people, and I have no intentions of following you around and watching you and Agie snog all day while you buy yours!" James said, annoyed.

"Yeah, that might pose some issues, then…" Sirius mused.

"If you guys are going together, how are you going to buy gifts for each other?" Peter asked.

"She already got him something," James blurted out, and then clamped his jaw shut.

"What was that about?" Sirius asked him. James shook his head.

Just then, the four girls came down the stairs and sat down on the couch next to theirs.

"Hey, guys!" Alice said cheerfully, sitting next to Frank and grabbing his hand. She, Amber, and Adriyana all looked ready to go to Hogsmeade, but Lily was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Not exactly winter attire.

"Lily, are you staying here?" Remus asked. James looked up.

"Yeah, I already got everything. Why?" she asked.

"Oh…nothing…" Remus said, as James grinned madly. "So, are all six of us going together, or are we splitting up, Padfoot…Padfoot?"

"Sorry, what?" Sirius said, tearing his eyes away from Adriyana. She was putting on her shoes, and her head kept brushing his leg as she bent down.

"Yeah, come to think of it, I don't want to be around you two all day. Let's split up. How about we meet for lunch, though?" Amber said, making a face.

Adriyana opened her mouth, then seemed to think the better of what she was about to say. Instead, she pulled out her piece of parchment and tapped it with her wand. Sirius managed to see what she had written, and he laughed at the violet script.

_You're one to talk. Going to spend today in the One-Eyed Witch passage? ;) _

Adriyana held the paper so that Sirius could (conveniently) see Amber's response.

_Maybe…_

Remus, who was reading over Amber's shoulder, jumped up and pulled her up with him. "Come on, guys, lets go!" he said, and Alice, Frank, Sirius, Adriyana, and Peter stood up.

"Have fun, you two!" Sirius called as he pulled Adriyana out of the portrait hole.

"What are you talking about?" Lily called after him, and then turned around. The common room was empty except for her and Potter. He gave her a nervous smile and a wave.

"Potter? What are you doing here?" Lily asked.

"I'm staying, too. I bought all my gifts last Hogsmeade weekend when all my friends were out. That reminds me…" He reached into his pocket and pulled out something. "This is yours. You dropped it last trip, and I've been trying to give it to you ever since I saw it fall out of your pocket, but you never let me talk for long enough to tell you that I have it." He held up her gold locket.

Lily felt a twinge of guilt. All those times she had thought he just wanted to ask her on a date, and he had been trying to give her back the locket that she had torn up the girls' dormitory looking for. That would explain the "gift" he was trying to give her in Hogsmeade last time. She smiled at him, and his eyes bulged in shock.

"Thanks, James…Can you put it on me?" she asked. _Did I just call him James?_

She turned around and picked her hair up off her neck. She couldn't believe she was actually doing this. She felt his trembling hands on her neck as he closed the locket's clasp. It seemed like he let them linger just a little too long, but for once, she resisted chewing him out. It was the least she could do, right? He had found her favourite necklace.

"Beautiful…" James whispered.

"Isn't it, though? It was my grandmother's," Lily said, turning to face him again. He stared into her eyes for a while before he responded.

"That's not what I…anyway, since it's just us, what do you want to do?" James asked, hopefully.

"Well, since I have no choice, why don't we meet the rest of them for lunch later? If we can get to Hogsmeade, that is," Lily said.

"I can do that," James said with a grin.

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Sirius and Adriyana were in a cluttered little book shop towards the end of the town, paying for Adriyana's gift for Amber, an extremely pretty blue diary with all kinds of privacy spells on it, along with a soft white quill.

"She'll love it," Sirius told Adriyana as they left the shop, walking to the little park that separated the town and the houses. Since it was winter, the whole park was deserted. They sat down on a bench under a tree.

"You think so? She keeps writing stuff in mine," Adriyana said.

"What does she write about?" he asked.

"Oh, I don't read them. She asks me not to," she responded, smiling at him.

"Well, do you write good stuff about me?" he asked.

"Nope. It's mostly about what a prat you are, actually," Adriyana said.

"Really? You think I'm a prat?" he asked. "You wound me, Agie."

She laughed. "If I did, would I do this?" she said, as she smiled warmly and then put her lips on his. He returned the kiss, and she ran her hand through his soft hair and he tangled his fingers in hers. The kiss got deeper and deeper, and Sirius' mouth travelled to her neck. Adriyana squirmed uncomfortably, and he jumped away.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Sorry, Siri…it's…Lily," Adriyana said.

"Lily?" he said, confused. Then he noticed the paper in her hand. More specifically, the emerald-green sentence written on it. On the bright side, at least they'd gotten somewhere before Lily could interrupt this time.

_What time are you guys meeting for lunch?_

_What the hell, Lily! I'm busy…_

Sirius grinned at that last part. About a second later, Lily's response appeared on the paper.

_Sorry to disturb you…not that I want to know what you're doing._

_You should be sorry. Why do you want to know about lunch?_

_Oh, James and I might be coming down and meeting you guys._

"What? Since when does she call him James?" Sirius asked.

"She doesn't. What have they been doing since we left?"

"Apparently the same thing we're doing…" Sirius mused.

"Or were doing…" Adriyana said.

"Well, we can fix that. Hurry up and tell them to meet us in an hour." Sirius whispered in her ear. She did. "Now…where were we?" he asked with a smile.

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Remus, who was walking down the snowy path of Hogsmeade hand in hand with Amber, saw Alice and Frank as they walked to The Three Broomsticks for lunch. Frank and Alice saw them, and the four of them walked in together and sat at a big table. Amber and Alice knew Lily was coming because of the interesting conversation they had seen on their papers. Adriyana and Sirius walked in next. Frank and Alice started cracking up when they saw Adriyana. Her neck had quite a few dark red marks on it.

Amber's inky midnight eyes widened in shock. "Do we tell her?" she whispered to Alice.

Alice shook her head. "Nope. We just give her discreet hints," she said. Amber nodded in agreement.

Adriyana sat down and began to start up a normal conversation, as if she wasn't covered in love bites. Suddenly she looked up, towards the door of the pub. "Um, you guys? Am I hallucinating or did Lily and James just walk in together? Look, Lily isn't slapping him or anything. Something is very wrong."

They sat down, on opposite sides of the table. James plopped a big bag of Honeydukes sweets down on the table and Lily stared at Adriyana's neck. Alice nudged her and Remus picked up a piece of chocolate from the pile and tasted it.

"Yum, this is delicious. Would you like a BITE, LOVE?" he said loudly, his gaze shifting from Amber to Adriyana at the last two words.

James caught on. "Guys, guess what. There was this vampire in Slughorn's office when we walked past it, he looked like he wanted to attack someone's neck, or something…" He looked at Adriyana, too.

"Serious…ly?" Frank said, grinning.

"Yeah…he really looked like he had an urge to bite someone!" Lily added, hardly believing she was teaming up with James to tease Adriyana.

"Wow…I wonder what someone would look like if they were covered in bites…" Alice said, faking deep thought.

Adriyana finally caught on. She ran to the bathroom. Amber, once she was done laughing of course, followed her.

"That was fantastic, guys! Great job being discreet!" Alice said enthusiastically, giving the table a thumbs-up.

"Sorry, Padfoot, mate," Remus added, because Sirius was seething in anger, clenching his drink so tightly it was shaking.

"Oh, look, she's written something," James said, because Alice's walkie-talkie paper was sitting on the table, and they could all see Adriyana's violet scribble.

_You idiots! Why do you need to be discreet when all of you already know!_

Alice tapped her paper.

_Because it's fun._

_Fair enough. I'd kill you all if I didn't know a spell to fix this._

Lily and Alice laughed.

"So…is Agie mad at me, or what?" Sirius said anxiously.

"Nope…but I don't see why she would be…did you do something?" Lily asked. "Look, here she comes. She doesn't look mad."

Sure enough, Adriyana walked over to the table and took her spot next to Sirius, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"So…are we only having sweets for lunch, or what?" Alice asked, picking up a Chocolate Frog and twirling it between her fingers.

--------------------------------------------------

Lily and James' friends had deserted them again. Not that this was a bad thing. Not for James, at least, because now it was just the two of them walking the path back to Hogwarts. Lily shivered as an icy gust of

"Hey, Evans?" he asked nervously. "Do you want my cloak? You look cold."

"You? Doing something gentlemanly?" she said, though she did let him put the cloak on her. They walked for a few minutes in silence. Then Lily spoke again. "And…"

"Yes?" he said hopefully.

"Thanks. For not being such a prat today, I mean."

"Oh. I thought you were about to declare your undying love for me," he said, kicking a rock with his foot.

"Well, for most of today, anyways," she sighed. "And thanks so much for finding my locket. I really owe…never mind. Forget I said anything," she added quickly, a blush creeping up her cheeks.

"I will never figure you out, Evans."

"And I will never declare my undying love for you, Potter," she said with a grin as they entered the huge stone doors of Hogwarts.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Evans. Everyone knows you secretly lust for me…" He put his hand over his heart.

"In your dreams," she said, rolling her eyes. _Or maybe in mine. Oh, crap, did I just think that? I did NOT just think that! Get a hold of yourself, Lils, he's a prat, remember?_

Looks like someone's still in denial…

---------------------------------

James couldn't believe he'd been able to have such a normal conversation with Lily, for what may be the first time in his life. He watched her emerald eyes glow with an emotion he didn't recognize. He watched her hair shine in the torchlight of the corridor they were in, and he watched the way she smiled. Her beauty, along with the fact that she was actually talking to him, made him deliriously happy. She either hadn't noticed how he was looking at her or she just didn't mind anymore, and that fact made James even happier.

"Well, anyway, Potter, much as I hate to admit it, I didn't have too bad a time today, and I have to go now," she said, motioning towards Alice, who was waiting in the corner of the Great Hall.

"All right, then," he said, sad to see the back of her. He had just had a real talk with Lily, spent most of the day with her, and none of it being shouted at by her. He could hardly believe it. He was really getting mature. Yeah. That had to be it.

And with that, he whooped triumphantly and ran back to the common room to devise a brilliant plan for how to torture Snivellus. Something to do with women's clothing, possibly.

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A/N- I like this chapter, even though it's shorter than most. I don't know why I always have Lily interrupt the kissing scenes, though. And Lily needed something to do until seventh year (when she and James get together), hence Jeremy Howes (so don't kill me…then Lily and James will never get together, then Harry will never be born…and look…you just messed up the Wizarding World. Oh, snap).

Push the sexy "GO!" button! you know you want to...


	10. Prongs and Presents

Disclaimer: I only own the OCs and the plot. Ooh, shocker!

_Dear Diary,_

_Happy Christmas holiday! Gryffindor Tower is nearly empty; most of the kids have gone home because of the whole You-Know-Who deal. Those of us (at least the people I know) who are still here are here either because their parents are out on an Auror mission (Me, James, Siri, Frank, and Gideon and Fabian Prewett), on vacation (Lily and Remus) or just because all their friends are staying (Peter, Amber and Alice). It should be pretty fun…especially when Siri sees what James and I got him together._

_Love,_

_Adriyana_

_----------------------------------------_

_Dear Diary,_

_We played Truth or Dare again today. Potter dared Agie to wear antlers on her head until Christmas Day. I don't know how he knew the spell for that one, but it looks pretty hilarious. She tried to ram him when she realized she even had to sleep with them on. Happy days!_

_Sincerely,_

_Lily_

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Lily put down her diary, and looked up. Adriyana's antlers were caught on one of her bedposts and she was wriggling around madly and trying to break free. Lily would have helped her, but she was too busy rolling on the floor laughing. Amber was laughing too, but Alice had run out of the room.

"Where's…she…going?" Adriyana said, jerking her head in between each word in her desperate attempt for freedom.

"She's…go-going…to…to—" Amber said, struggling to talk and laugh at the same time. At that moment, Alice ran back into the room.

She was holding Frank's camera, and she quickly snapped a picture of Adriyana struggling. Once the picture was taken, Lily and Amber regained their composure and began helping Adriyana get unstuck. She kept moving when they got closer and almost poked their eyes out. Lily had the strange feeling this wasn't entirely an accident.

When they had finally freed Adriyana, the four of them sat down on the carpet.

"What else is there to do, guys? We've already played Truth or Dare, painted our nails, braided each other's hair, and talked about our feelings…and it's only noon," Lily said.

"Well, we could play Quidditch…" Adriyana suggested. "I mean, I know it's December and freezing, but we're here, and we have basically the whole Quidditch pitch to ourselves."

Amber, Adriyana, and Alice all stared at Lily. "What?" she said.

"Well," Alice said, "this is about the time when you object and say something like, 'Not a chance. Playing Quidditch means inviting Potter to play Quidditch, and there's no way I'm spending my holiday flying around a frozen pitch with him!'…or something like that."

"Well, I will be freezing my arse off and be spending all day with Ja—Potter…but what the hell, I'm in if you guys are in," Lily said. They stared at her for a full five minutes before Adriyana and Amber ran off to get the boys.

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In total, there were eleven of them in Gryffindor Tower that were willing to play Quidditch in January (Including Gideon Prewett, Frank's best mate, and his younger brother, Fabian. Gideon was in his seventh year with Frank and Fabian was in his fifth). James, of course, was leading the whole event; he was abnormally peppy ever since he had found out Lily wanted to play, even after she knew he was playing.

"Okay, we need one more player, and we'll play with only two Chasers," James informed them all as they stood in the common room.

"Well, nobody else in here wants to play, so let's walk there, and if we don't find anyone along the way, then one team will rotate players or something," Remus reasoned. "Or I can sit out. I can't play this game very well."

"Remy, I'm sure you're not as bad as you say," Amber said.

"Well, do you know that hole in the equipment shed?" Peter asked her.

"Yeah, why?"

"In our third year, Moony decided to help Padfoot with 'Beater practice,' and that's what ended up happening."

"We weren't practicing anywhere near there, either," Sirius added.

"Okay…" Adriyana said, as they approached the Great Hall. "Let's see…Oh! Zach White is in here! He's on the Ravenclaw team, right?"

"Yeah, but then I call being on Alice's team!" Lily said.

"Why?" Frank asked.

"He'll be too busy staring at her to play. Did you see him at the dance?" Lily asked smiling.

"Did you see _him_ at the dance?" Adriyana said, pointing at Frank. "He was looking at someone besides White."

Frank became very interested in his shoes all of a sudden, and Alice smiled at him and took his hand. Amber went up to Zach and started talking to him; eventually he nodded and followed all of them out to the Quidditch pitch.

They split up into teams, one team consisting of Adriyana, Sirius, Gideon, Frank, Alice, and Remus, and the other James, Lily, Zach, Fabian, Amber, and Peter.

It was freezing outside, but they still played for hours. James and Lily were their team's Chasers, and he was excited to say they made an amazing team. She was actually quite good at the game.

"I think my nose is frozen!" Adriyana called as the eleven of them headed back up to the common room, Zach having left them to go back to the Ravenclaw common room.

"Consider yourself lucky…I won't even tell you what I need to thaw out," Fabian said, running a hand through his red hair.

"Fabian, that better not mean what I think it means!" Adriyana exclaimed. Fabian just raised his eyebrows.

"Mistletoe." Adriyana said the new password as they reached the Fat Lady's portrait. She swung open and they all went inside, and saw that the house elves had put out eleven mugs of hot chocolate, a gigantic bowl of marshmallows, and some other snacks in front of the roaring fire.

"I guess there's nothing to do now that almost all of the school is gone," Lily said.

"I love this place," Gideon sighed.

----------------------------------------------------

Sirius was having the best Christmas holiday of his life. Of course, there wasn't much competition…his past fifteen Christmases were spent at Grimmauld Place (his parents forced him home), which wasn't very festive, to say the least. Now, sitting in front of the fire in Gryffindor Tower on Christmas Eve with Adriyana resting her head on his shoulder (well, kind of…her head was oddly positioned because of the antlers), he was finally having a Merry Christmas.

Adriyana wrapped her arms tighter around him and sighed. It looked like she was thinking the same thing.

Fabian, Peter, and Frank were having a contest to see who could fit the most marshmallows in his mouth. Sirius and Adriyana were watching the competition with mild interest when Gideon and James came and sat down next to them, tired of cheering on the three boys.

"You know, Gid, you and Fabian look nothing alike," Adriyana said as Fabian shoved eight marshmallows in his mouth. It was true. Fabian had longer, light red hair and dark blue eyes, and Gideon had short and spiky dark brown hair and even darker brown eyes.

"Yeah, I guess," said Gideon.

"Hey, where's Moony? I haven't seen him in a while…" Sirius mused.

"Amber's gone, too…" Lily said, walking up to them. "They both left together a while ago."

"Oh, Merlin…" Adriyana said. "Thanks ever so much for that image, Lils."

"Anytime," Lily said with a grin.

"Mgggph!" Frank called, pointing to his throat to signify that he was choking. Alice panicked and forgot that there was a simple spell to clear Frank's throat pipe. She wrapped her hands behind him and began performing the Heimlich maneuver on him. After a second, about fifty marshmallows shot out of Frank's mouth, showering all of them.

"Oh my God! Frankie, are you all right?" Alice said.

"Yeah…I'm good," Frank said. Then he started laughing. Everyone in the common room got showered with marshmallows. Adriyana had several stuck to her antlers.

"I HATE THESE THINGS!" Adriyana yelled as Lily and Alice laughed. "I keep getting caught on stuff, I can't hug Siri, and I look like a blooming coat rack!"

"Hey!" James said, offended.

"Sorry, James," Adriyana said, sounding confused; she didn't know why he was so mad. "Oh, Merlin, it's nearly midnight…we should go sleep soon, guys."

Everyone nodded in agreement. "I can barely walk after playing Quidditch for so long," Alice added. "Let me hold your antlers for support as we go up the stairs, Agie."

"I hope you're kidding," Adriyana mumbled, before the three of them trudged up the stairs.

The boys (minus Remus) headed for the stairs to the boys' dormitories, and Sirius suddenly realized how much his muscles ached. He flopped onto his bed, falling asleep the second his head hit the pillow.

----------------------------------------------

"OI! PADFOOT WAKE UP! IT'S CHRISTMAS!" James yelled, and Sirius opened his eyes, the bright dormitory coming into focus.

"Morning, Prongs…Happy Christmas," Sirius mumbled, then he noticed that Remus was back and awake. "Happy Christmas, Moony…Wormtail."

"Happy Christmas, Padfoot. C'mon, let's open these presents!" Peter said, motioning towards the foot of Sirius' bed, where a pile of presents was sitting.

Sirius jumped off his bed and landed in front of the pile of presents, picking up a big, flat present that said, "To Padfoot, From Moony," on it, and tearing the paper off.

James said what Sirius was thinking, apparently having opened the same present as him. "Wow, Moony, thanks!"

Remus had given Sirius a sign that said, "Beware Of Dog," which Sirius promptly took and used a Sticking Charm to put over his bed. Sirius noticed James doing the same thing, except his sign said, "Deer Crossing," instead. Peter's sign said, "Speed Limit 45," for lack of a better rat-themed sign, and Peter liked it very much.

Sirius opened all of his presents (which took a short time, because all of the others had more presents than him) and all that was left in his pile now was a thin envelope.

_'Hmm, that's odd, I didn't get anything from Prongs or Agie… I wonder if they got lost?'_ Sirius thought, scratching his head. He opened the envelope, which he now noticed had his name on it in purple ink.

A piece of paper fell out of the envelope. There was nothing written on it. This struck Sirius as very strange.

"Padfoot, what'd you get from Agie?" Remus asked. James looked up at him.

"…just a blank bit of parchment," Sirius said.

"Me, too…I mean, from Star," Remus said.

"Look, guys, my mum gave me enough fudge to share! We can—"

"OW! HOT!" Remus screamed, interrupting Peter's rant. He threw his piece of paper in the air. Sirius immediately picked up his own paper, which he had discarded, and saw that it was no longer blank.

_ Ha! Gotcha Siri!_

_We got Remy, too._

"Ha! Moony? Do you know what this is?"

"Lethal paper of doom?"

"No! It's that paper the girls use to talk to each other with! And they gave us one!"

_You guys burned Moony with this thing. He called it the 'Paper of Doom'…you're murderers!…hand murderers._

_Remy, are you alright?_

"Padfoot, this is great…how do I work it?"

"Just tap the paper with your wand," Sirius said.

_Siri, your wand is resting on the paper…and you can write on it, manually too. This way's just easier._

_Agie? This is a fantastic present._

_This? This isn't your present. You'll get it later._

_What? You mean there's more?_

_From James and me. Am's got something for you too, Remus. Now I've gotta go, I haven't opened my presents yet. Bye!_

Sirius could only stare at the paper, confused.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Adriyana (now antler-free) tucked her own piece of parchment back into her front pocket and looked at the pile of presents that sat in front of her. She had opened nearly all of them, and they were all wonderful, but there was still one left to open. Her present from Sirius. She had saved the small silver box for last and could barely stand it in its current unwrapped state anymore.

Ash the phoenix landed on Adriyana's shoulder as she watched Lily unwrap the present that she had given her.

Lily opened the box and pulled out from inside a chunky looking silver charm bracelet. The charms on it were actually moving, each one a memory of some of Lily's favorite moments with her friends. Adriyana's personal favorite charm was the "pillow fight" one, which had a picture of Adriyana and Lily beating Alice senseless with their pillows, feathers flying everywhere.

"Agie, it's so lovely!" Lily said, rushing over to hug her, sending Ash flying away.

Adriyana glanced down at the silver box again. For an inanimate object, it was extremely good at taunting her.

"Agie, just open it, already," Amber said, looking up from the i Romeo and Juliet /i book Remus had given her. He had written little love notes on many of the pages--not that Amber let anyone read them, but it was just about the sweetest thing any of them had ever heard. Remus couldn't afford much, but the smile on Amber's face made it look like he had given her the world.

"I swear that box is laughing at me, Am," Adriyana said, giving the box a death glare. She didn't want to open Sirius' present until everyone had finished opening theirs, because she knew when she opened it, she'd go running to Sirius to thank him, and wouldn't see her friends for a good hour or so, because then she and James will give him his present and the three of them would probably use it for a while.

"Agie, last one…Oh, it's from Jam—Potter," Lily said, reading the card and laughing lightly.

"What?"

"Oh, just this card," Lily said. then she opened the package.

"Um…what is it, Lils?" Alice and Amber asked. Adriyana had taken to glaring at the box again.

"Look, guys…this is actually pretty cool," Lily said, almost disbelievingly. She picked up out of the package a sparkly flower.

"It's a lily…made out of sugar?" Amber asked.

"Yeah, I can really eat it," Lily said with a smile.

"What does the card say?" Adriyana asked. Lily handed it to her.

_Lily_,

_This flower is very sweet. Just like you (except when you're threatening me). My mum showed me the spell for this when I was younger. Enjoy, it's as beautiful as you. Plus…it's a lily. _

_From,_

_James_

"Awwthatsniceareyoudoneyet?" Adriyana shouted. That package was so going to get it for being such a tease.

"Knock yourself out, Agie," Lily said, and Adriyana grabbed Sirius' present and ripped off the card.

_Agie,_

_It took me forever to find the prefect gift, but I think I got it. It reminds me of your eyes. I really hope you like it._

_Merry Christmas,_

_Sirius_

Adriyana read the note aloud to everyone.

"Cute," Lily said mildly, still reading her own letter. They all watched Adriyana rip away the silver paper. A long, thin black box fell out.

Adriyana opened the box and looked inside. Her eyes grew even wider, and before any of them could see what was inside, she ran out the door, box in hand.

-----------------------------------------------------------

"Can I have it now?"

"No."

"How about now?"

"No!"

"Hey, what about—"

"PADFOOT! SHUT UP!" James yelled, causing Peter to scream and throw his chunk of fudge in the air in alarm. It landed on Gideon's head because he happened to be sitting next to them in the common room.

"At least give me a hint…is it bigger than a breadbox?" Sirius said, as the other three boys groaned. Ever since Sirius had found out he was getting a secret joint present from James and Adriyana, he had been trying to guess what it was.

"I won't say anything until Agie comes down," James said, and Sirius' train of thought shifted.

"I hope she likes what I got her," Sirius said. "It took me a REALLY long time to find it."

"I love it, Siri," said a female voice behind them, and he turned around so that he was now nose to nose with Adriyana.

She moved forward, closing the small amount of space between their lips.

"Really?" Sirius asked her as he pulled out of the kiss.

"Sirius…this is so thoughtful and nice…how could I not love it?" she said, holding up the open box. Inside lay the sparkly amethyst necklace that Sirius had spent nearly an hour looking for. It was a simple silver chain with a single, glittering purple gemstone set into it.

"He really got that for you?" Remus asked, staring at the necklace.

Adriyana nodded eagerly and handed Sirius the necklace. "Put it on me?" she asked. James watched sadly as his best friend fastened the necklace. It reminded him of when he had given Lily back her locket. If only Lily would look at him the way Adriyana was looking at Sirius now.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Sirius watched Adriyana as she showed her friends the necklace. He had wanted to find something perfect for her, while still not spending much money—he wasn't exactly rolling in it ever since he had run away from home. But when he looked at Adriyana's eyes, which were already sparkling in happiness, and the way they looked with that necklace…well, he had done a damn good job.

Adriyana laughed at something Lily told her, then walked back over to where Sirius was sitting next to James.

"Ready yet?" she asked James.

"Yeah," James said, as Sirius jumped up off the couch. They were talking about his present…right?

"It's out on the grounds, come on, Siri!" Adriyana said and the three of them ran for the door.

James and Adriyana refused to answer any of Sirius' questions as they headed out to the grounds.

"Where is it?" Sirius asked. The two of them said nothing, just kept walking over to behind Hagrid's hut.

Both of them suddenly stopped short and stepped aside. In front of them was what could only be Sirius' present.

Sirius stared at it for a full five minutes before he could speak.

"Oh…my…God…"

-------------------------------------------------------

A/N- What can I say? I like writing cliffies…but this one is probably very obvious…maybe I'm wrong…hehe I'm having fun with the "…" things.

You should review now, it's so much fun. Just thought I'd share that with you…


	11. In Which we Discover Two Kinds of Fal

A Disclaimer: Is really no longer necessary after ten chapters, I think.

Sirius stared at it in awe. "Prongs…Agie…is that a--"

"Motorcycle? Indeed it is, Padfoot," James said, grinning. "A flying motorcycle."

Sirius looked at the shining black motorbike. He remembered one time, in Muggle studies, which he originally only took to piss off his parents but actually found interesting, they were learning about transportation. He remembered telling James how cool he thought the motorcycle was and how badly he wanted one of them…or a canoe.

No…the motorcycle was definitely better. "Wow…how'd you get it to fly?"

"We had to take the whole thing apart and charm a bunch of the parts," Adriyana said, looking fondly at it.

"This is…amazing!" Sirius said, still staring at it.

"Agie…I think he's going to dump you for the thing…we may have just made a terrible mistake," James said, rolling his eyes.

Adriyana looked at James. "Do you know…you really are a lot like Lils…that's something she would say," Adriyana said.

James began staring dreamily into the sky, possibly thinking of bespectacled, red-haired, eye-rolling children.

"Well, he's useless," Adriyana said. She turned away from James and looked at Sirius. "Well…?"

"Well, what?" Sirius looked at her.

"Are you going to ride it?" she asked, pointing to the bike.

"Yeah!" Sirius said, jumping on the bike. James snapped out of his daze to show Sirius how to work the controls.

In about five minutes, Sirius had mastered it and was up in the air, flying over the grounds of Hogwarts at breakneck speed. He slowed down, and took a deep breath of the icy winter air.

After flying for a while, he noticed the figures of Adriyana and James were still standing out on the grounds. Sirius landed the bike and rode it over to them. They had clearly had a snowball fight in his absence, and it looked like Adriyana had gotten most of the snow on her. She was shivering and her face was red from the cold, but she was still smiling nonetheless.

"You guys want a ride?" Sirius asked, smiling.

----------------------------------------------

Lily sat in her room later that night. She had read James' letter perhaps fifty times, and yet she could find no signs of innuendo, rudeness, or even big-headed arrogance (and that's the ONLY reason she read it fifty times, of course). Maybe Remus had written it for James…no, wait, he had written it for _Potter_ . That had to be it, right?

Then there was the lily. It was so pretty, Lily was almost afraid to eat it. Then Alice had pointed out that it would attract bugs, and if Lily didn't eat it in a few days, she would flush it down the toilet. Lily then reminded herself that it was a gift from James…er, Potter, and therefore should be flushed, but she just couldn't do it. It was too beautiful.

Reluctantly, she broke off one of the petals and brought it to her lips.

Okay, so James was a stalker. How else would he know that her favorite flavor of anything was butterscotch? Unless it was his favorite flavor, too…though it wasn't very comforting knowing she had something in common with James Potter.

Adriyana, who had spent most of the day flying around on the frozen grounds with Sirius, walked into the dormitory at that moment, and Lily hastily shoved the letter under her pillow. Adriyana was pale, shivering and had a mug of hot chocolate (there was always hot chocolate in the common room in the winter) clasped in her hands.

She sniffled. "Hello, Lils."

"Agie, are you all right? You stayed out on the grounds all day and I think you're sick or something," Lily said, thankful that Adriyana hadn't noticed the letter only half-concealed by her pillow.

Adriyana coughed and sat down on her bed. "It's freezing in here, Lils, don't you think?" She sat down on her bed and pulled the covers around herself.

Lily shoved the letter farther into her pillow. _Wait a minute! What's wrong with me? Since when do I hide ANYTHING from Adriyana? We tell each other everything…it's not like she'd laugh at me or tease me or anything…she's been trying to convince me to like him ever since she started going out with Sirius. If I can't trust her, something is seriously wrong with me._

"Adriyana? Can I ask you something?" Lily said nervously. A muffled noise came from the cocoon of blankets Adriyana was wrapped in. All Lily could see was one of Adriyana's eyes inside.

"Well, it's about James—"

"Why…James…not…Potter?" Adriyana said, yawning loudly. She shivered, even though she was wrapped so tightly in the blankets.

Lily got up and pulled some spare blankets out of the closet. She put them over Adriyana, then went back to her own bed and sat down. "That's just it. I don't feel like calling him Potter anymore. And look at this lily! It's amazing!" She held up the sugar lily.

"Loves…you," Adriyana said sleepily.

"No…no, he can't!" Lily said frantically, snapping a leaf off of the sugar lily from grasping it so hard.

"Yes…" Adriyana whispered, before falling into a deep sleep. Lily, unfortunately, wasn't as lucky.

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The Gryffindor common room was littered with empty Butterbeer bottles, shreds of wrapping paper, random pillows, and marshmallows. Sirius and James stared at it proudly.

"Oh yeah…we Gryffindors sure know how to party," Sirius said.

"This is disgusting! When was the last time somebody ate a banana?" Alice said from across the room, holding up a rather old looking banana peel with the tip of her wand.

"Well, it would have to be yesterday; otherwise the elves would have gotten it…why didn't they come last night?" James mused.

"Who knows?" Alice shrugged.

"You know," Remus said from where he was sitting on the couch, reading a book, "You could just do a simple cleaning spell,"

"We could…" James said, tapping his chin wisely.

"Well, it's a good thing they didn't come…look at this!" Sirius said, holding up a scrap of parchment room the floor. It was ripped ever so slightly in the upper left corner.

"The Marauder's Map? What's it doing down here?" James said, taking the paper fondly in his hands.

"Check to make sure that's it, Padfoot," James said, tossing the map back to Sirius while he went off to distract Alice.

Sirius tapped the map with his wand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!"

Sure enough, the intricate map of the school blossomed onto the page. Sirius stared at it. The dots marked "Lily Evans" and "Amber Carmichael" were approaching the Gryffindor common room, and of course, "Alice Cohen" was standing right over there…but where was the "Adriyana Dumbledore" dot?

Lily and Amber stepped into the common room, Lily holding a huge steaming bowl of chicken soup, Amber a mug of tea.

Alice looked at them. "What? No Pepper-Up Potion?" she asked.

"Pomfrey's not there," Amber said.

"Why? What's up?" Remus asked.

"Adriyana's really sick," Lily said. Sirius' eyes darted around the paper, noticing that Adriyana was, indeed, in her bed in the girls' dormitory.

"Probably from flying on that bike all day!" Alice said, glaring at Sirius.

"We're all going out…the three of us promised Hagrid we'd help him clear the snow around the greenhouses…well, actually Adriyana did, in exchange for being able to keep that bike behind his hut…of course, now the three of us are stuck with it," Lily scowled.

"I'll help you, Evans," James said, smiling shyly and ruffling his hair.

Lily's brilliant green eyes widened and she just stared at James, probably in shock because James had offered to help her with something without asking something in return.

"That's a yes in Lily-language," Alice said, as Lily continued to stare.

Amber gave her foot a good stomp, spilling quite a bit of the tea. "Bugger. Well, I'll just bring her the soup and this half a cup of tea, then…you just continue to be mesmerized by James' attractiveness, Lils…"

That snapped Lily out of it. She shook her fiery head and glared angrily at Amber's back.

Sirius glared at Remus. "Oh…OH! Er…I'll help, too," Remus said, and Amber grinned at him.

"Yeah, I'm in," Peter said, getting up off the couch. They all waited for Amber to return, and once they did, they left the common room, leaving Sirius alone. In his fifth year, he had figured out something very important. The girls had male animals, right? So male animals had to be able to get up the stairs, right? Right.

Looking around the clearly empty common room, he transformed into Padfoot and ran up the stairs, until he got to the door marked i Sixth Years. /i He nudged open the door with his nose and turned back into himself before anyone on the other side of the door could see the large black dog that had been outside the door.

He smiled as he entered the girls' dormitory. Basically the same layout and furniture, same scarlet carpet, same huge window with the same view over Hogwarts grounds, and yet…it was so different. He noticed the poster of Adriyana and himself kissing after the Quidditch game, he noticed the vases of roses that were STILL alive…he noticed Lily's lily was very prominently displayed…and of course, he noticed the smell…mostly the roses mixed with some girly perfume.

"…Siri?" Sirius noticed Adriyana sitting in her bed, surrounded by crumpled tissues, the bowl of soup sitting on her lap. Her eyes were tired, her face was pasty, and her hair hung lank around her face.

"Adriyana, are you all right?" Sirius asked. It was a pretty stupid question, actually. Of course, even though she looked like she was about to pass out, the weak smile she gave him still made his stomach do a flip. Maybe he was in love…

"I can honestly say I've been better…how'd you get in here?" she asked him, sniffling.

"Can't tell you, sorry…" Sirius said. Adriyana just shrugged and looked into her bowl of soup, scowling at it.

"What's wrong?" he asked, slowly stepping closer to her bed.

"Amber told me to eat this whole blasted bowl, but I already ate all the noodles and now all that's left is this oily broth crap…" she said, then she groaned and fell back against her pillows.

Sirius picked up the bowl of "oily broth crap"—which did look pretty unappetizing—and set it down on Adriyana's nightstand.

"What are you doing here, Siri? You should be hanging out with James, Remus, and Peter," she said, looking up at him before adding quietly, "not that I don't want you here."

He smiled at her. "I'm just here for you…after all it's my fault you're sick…and I didn't want to leave you here all alone," he said. She shivered and pulled the blankets on her bed up closer. Finally giving in, Sirius sat down on the bed. He knew Adriyana loved having someone close to her, and he knew he wanted to be that someone, so what was the problem?

He rested his head against the headboard and pulled out his wand, then muttered a spell that made steam start coming out of the tip. "Agie, here, breathe this in," he said, and she pulled herself closer to him, putting her face into the steam and breathing in deeply.

"Thanks so much…what would I do without you?"

"Well, I expect you'd have to hold your wand up by yourself," Sirius said, and she gave him a playful shove.

"That's not what I meant and you know it. This…thing we have, it's something…something…"

"Something real," he finished, and her eyes started sparkling again, like she had a secret. Only this time, he was in on it.

"Something real…" she repeated. Then she started coughing.

"Okay, Agie, you need sleep," he said regretfully, realizing a second too late that this was probably THE worst possible time he could have said that. He held his still-steaming wand closer to her face and put his arm around her, running his hand through her hair gently until her eyelids began to droop sleepily.

She yawned. "If you really want to, you could go, Siri. I mean, I'd rather you stay with me for a bit longer but I'm just going to fall asleep."

"I'm staying right here. Do you really think I'd leave my 'something real'?"

She smiled at him. "Too bad you'll get sick if I kiss you."

"You owe me when you get better."

"Consider it done," she said with a sniffle. Shortly after that, she fell into a deep sleep in Sirius' arms.

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Melting snow with a jet of hot air from your wand was not as much fun as it sounded.

James prodded the snow dully with his wand. Normally, he would just set alight the nearest piece of wood or Slytherin, and that would get the job done much faster. However, everything was too moist for that, not to mention he was trying to be "Mature James" in front of Lily. Mature James did not make Slytherins spontaneously combust.

"So annoying…SHE buys the thing, then makes this deal…now she's upstairs doing Merlin-knows-what while I freeze my arse off making ice melt." Lily walked by him, muttering darkly.

"Are you okay Lil-Evans?" James asked.

"Well, I suppose this could be worse," she said. _HA!_ James thought. _Never before has Lily associated "Could be worse" with any activity she's ever done in my presence!_

"Potter?" she said, looking at him worriedly. Probably because he looked like a madman grinning so hard. He instantly froze up, though, when he heard his name escape her lips.

"Yeah?" he said, not knowing what to expect.

"You…can call me…Lily."

Behind them, Remus let out a gasp, somehow triggering an impulse in his wand that made a great deal of the snow explode out of the way.

"Merlin, Moony! WHY didn't you do that sooner? Would have saved me a great load of time!" Peter said, gasping loudly like Remus had and waving his wand about madly, expecting some explosion to occur. Instead, however, all the snow around him turned to slick, shiny ice.

James just stood there, his wand at his side.

"Lily…"

Unfortunately, James' wand was still spraying hot air, and he had been holding it against his thigh for some time now. "OW! BLOODY HELL!"

"What is it, Potter?"

"James…call me James," he said, gasping in pain. For something that melted snow so slowly, it sure did burn like hell.

"All right," she said, but she smiled nonetheless. "You know what will help that burn?"

"What?"

"A little….SNOW!" she yelled, pelting him with a snowball.

_ Wait a minute…was LILY EVANS just flirting with me? ME!_ James thought, as he threw a snowball back at Lily, then threw one at Remus.

Soon enough, all of them were launched into a full scale snowball fight, though Peter was having trouble, because he was still encapsulated in his icy hovel.

James managed to make a snowball the size of a Quaffle, and was about to throw it, when something much heavier hit him.

_Wait…where'd my icy Quaffle go?...BLOODY HELL!...something's on top of me…MERLIN! IT'S…LILY! _James thought, as Lily pinned him to the ground, shoving a great deal of snow in his face.

She stopped smashing snow into his face and just sat there, pinning his shoulders down and breathing heavily, her breath coming out in white puffs. "Lily?" he asked.

She seemed to notice that she was just randomly sitting on top of him at that point. "Bloody—" she said, jumping away from him and running full-tilt back to the castle.

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"Merlin, Lily! If you looked up 'Idiot' in the dictionary, there'd be a picture of you there…" Lily muttered darkly, as she kept running through the halls and back to the Gryffindor common room. She glared angrily at her feet, ignoring Frank and Gideon, who asked her to play chess with them.

She got to the heavy oak door of her dormitory and pushed it open.

"Okay…that's disturbing," Lily said, as her eyes fell on Adriyana's bed, where she could see two people sleeping, one of which definitely shouldn't be there. She turned to run out of the room, but then, upon remembering the exciting world that awaited her down there, decided against it, and settled for sitting on the stairs and waiting for Sirius to leave.

She sighed and leaned against the wall...why couldn't she have someone that cared about her as much as Sirius cared about Adriyana?

Little did she know…she actually did.

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A/N- Okay, how many people did I kill due to fluff overdose?

Sorry.

Well, I promise the next chapter will make up for the abundantly obvious lack of plot line in this one, because I finally decided to write in all those pranks people keep asking me about ).


	12. James Potter: The Other He Who Must Not

Disclaimer: It's not mine. Oh, and if you catch the Potter Puppet Pals reference, I don't own that, either. That would be really cool, though. Everything except the OCs belongs to JKR. May she never be cursed with writer's block.

_Dear Diary,_

_I know I've only been going out with Siri for about three months now, but this is the strongest I've ever felt about any guy before. I think I love him. Do I tell him? Or do I wait for him to tell me? Will he ever tell me? Now I've gone and confused myself. As if I wasn't already confused enough._

_Love (!...or ?),_

_Adriyana_

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_Dear Diary,_

_Christmas break is over, and classes have begun again. I can't say I'm too disappointed, at least I'm not James' sole focus of attention anymore, now that he's got Quidditch practices and his fan club back. Stupid twits…er, I mean…thank you, my beloved saviors. Yeah, that's what I meant to write. I must stop thinking about James...Maybe I should stop writing his name. I'll call him…He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. No, wait, that's taken. Well, how about if I just stop thinking about him?_

_…this really is harder than it seems._

_Sincerely,_

_Lily_

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In the boys' dormitory, Sirius sat on his bed, sucking on a Sugar Quill and thinking. The piece of parchment that should be at least half of a Potions essay by now was completely blank.

The sound of Remus' quill scratching on his parchment was the only noise in the room, and it was distracting Sirius from his thoughts. They weren't about the key ingredients of a Sleeping Draught, like they should be. This essay was due tomorrow, and Sirius hadn't even started it yet. He couldn't blame Adriyana; it wasn't exactly her fault he couldn't stop thinking about her. She had been the object of his thoughts for the last hour. He couldn't stop wondering how she caused his breath to catch with every touch, how she drove him completely crazy, and…how, because of her, he finally knew what true love felt like. Wow. He, Sirius Black, was in love. There wasn't a doubt in his mind, he'd known ever since that night he and Adriyana were stargazing…

_--------------------------------------------------------------_

_"See that?" Sirius asked Adriyana, as he pointed to the brightest star in the sky._

_"Yeah…" she said, eyes sparkling._

_"That's my star…Sirius. Ever since I learned that, I've been fascinated by astronomy," he said, wrapping his arm around her._

_"Sirius, huh? Well…I guess it's my star now, too," she said, as she rested her head on his shoulder._

_-----------------------------------------------------------------_

Since then, Sirius had been able to think about very little else besides her. Yeah, he was in there pretty deep…

So how was he ever going to be able to tell her about Gabriella?

Gabriella Dawson was a very pretty blonde Hufflepuff two years above them, and in Sirius' fifth year and Gabriella's seventh, a few months before Sirius had realized he had feelings for Adriyana, Gabriella had asked him to go to Hogsmeade with her. He'd agreed, and they'd ended up having way too much Firewhisky at the Hog's Head. Sirius had woken up with a splitting headache in a bed in the Room of Requirement. Next to Gabriella. With no clothes on. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened. After that the two of them never really spoke to each other again. He still hadn't told Adriyana about it, and shuddered to think what she might say.

Merlin's beard, his mind had never spun so fast. He needed something to distract him, because this Potions essay just wasn't doing it for him.

"Oi! Prongs!" he called across the room.

"Yeah, Padfoot?" James asked.

"I'm bored," Sirius stated. "Let's go bother Snape!"

"You read my mind, mate," James said with a grin, pulling a pale pink fluffy book out from under his bed.

"What is that, Prongs?" Remus asked, putting away his completed essay.

"Oh, this? I found it in the common room. Thought it might come in handy with a prank," James said. Sirius looked at the title. _Grooming Spells for Young Witches_.

Sirius snorted. "What the hell?"

James glared at him. "Shut up, Padfoot. I'm trying to find the Breast Enhancement Charm!"

Peter couldn't suppress his laughter anymore. "Prongs, I don't think there is such a thing,"

Seconds later, however, James had apparently found the charm. He pointed his wand at Peter's chest. "Enhancius!" he said.

Peter wasn't quick enough to jump out of the way of the spell, and…well, make up your own version of what happened. James was laughing so hard it took him twenty minutes to look up the countercurse.

"Prongs! What happened to not pranking a fellow Marauder?" Peter said, his chest restored to its normal size.

"So-Sorry Worm-Wormtail," James gasped before falling to the ground laughing again. "I had to test it on someone, didn't I?"

"Hey, I'm a rat, not a guinea pig!" Peter huffed, though the dramatic affect of his huffiness was somewhat diminished when he burst into laughter a second later.

"Snivellus, get ready for an extreme makeover!" Sirius called, standing up from where he had fallen off his bed from laughing.

"I have to see this," Remus said, giving Sirius a hand to help him up off the ground.

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That afternoon at lunch, the Marauders (minus Peter, who had a stomachache and had gone to the Hospital Wing for a potion) walked into the Great Hall, still laughing from what they had done to Snivellus earlier. While they tracked him down, James had also discovered the Hair-Bleaching charm and the Tanning charm. When they were finished, Snape looked like a very greasy and also rather scary Muggle Malibu Barbie Doll.

Sirius sat down, sniggering.

"What's so funny, Siri?" said a voice next to him. He looked around, seeing that he had sat down next to Adriyana. She smiled at him.

"Oh, we just…gave Snivellus a makeover," he said.

Suddenly, they saw Peter running to the Gryffindor table at mach speed. He looked like he was having a hard time not collapsing into laughter as he ran up to them, and he nearly crashed into a second year in front of him halfway up the table.

Once he had reached them, they had to wait for him to catch his breath and stop laughing before he could actually speak.

"Snape…Boobs…Pomfrey…can't…countercurse…" he said.

"What was that, Wormtail?" James asked.

Peter took a deep breath. "Pomfrey can't find the countercurse to the boobs charm," he said, and everyone, even Lily, burst out laughing.

"Wait a minute," said Alice, once she had recovered. "Do you guys have my Grooming Spells book? I left it in the common room one day, and now I can't find it anywhere."

"Oh, sorry, Alice. Yeah, we have it," James said. "We'll give it to you later."

"Some of those spells are really useful," Adriyana said. "But very few people know about them. That particular book is from France, so we don't have it in school."

"Yeah, I didn't even know there was a Breast Enhancement charm," Lily said. "I guess it's a French thing."

"That would explain why all those girls from Beauxbatons all have huge--" Sirius began, but was cut off when Adriyana lobbed a roll at his head.

"So, you guys gave Snape a boob job, and now they're stuck there?" Amber asked, because she had been laughing so hard during their conversation.

"Basically, yeah," James said.

"We should send him a bra…" Adriyana mused.

At that moment, Snape walked into the Great Hall. He was carrying a gigantic box in front of his chest, which seemed to be Madam Pomfrey's temporary solution to the "issue." Snape heard their laughter and shot a glare towards them. If looks could kill, the world would be down four Marauders.

They watched in amusement as Snape tried to sit down at the Slytherin table while still holding the large box.

"Shut up, all of you! Does the word 'inconspicuous' mean anything to you?" James hissed.

"Do you even know what it means, James?" Lily said.

Snape dropped the box. Fortunately (for him), there were very few people in the Great Hall, it was very early to be having lunch.

"Whoa! Those are huge!" Adriyana said loudly, causing Snape to glare at her. Then she burst into hysterical laughter with the rest of the group.

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Later that day, they were in their final class, Divination. The class had actually been okay fifth year, so all of them decided to take it again. The girls and Remus found it intriguing, Sirius loved learning about the stars, James got to take another class with Lily, and Peter followed the rest of them. Their professor fifth year had been very interesting, in a good way, and the classes were pretty good. This year, however, they had a new Professor. Professor Chauncey. Without a doubt, she was the most bizarre person they had ever met. She dressed in only burgundy, wore as many gold bangles as her body could carry, waggled her fingers at you when she spoke, and began almost every sentence with "The fates have informed me that…" or "My inner eye tells me…" or something equally ridiculous. Needless to say, Divination was suddenly one of their least favorite classes, and none of them would be taking it again next year.

"Uggh. Why are we doing this AGAIN? We learned all this years ago!" Alice said, motioning to the crystal ball sitting in front of her.

"The fates have informed me that Chauncey was too plastered last night to come up with a decent lesson plan," Adriyana said mysteriously, putting her fingers to her temples and causing Peter, Alice, and Sirius, whom were sitting at her table, to burst out laughing.

"Miss Dumbledore! Are you having a vision?" Professor Chauncey said urgently, running up to Adriyana, who was still touching her temples, eyes closed. Alice shoved her whole fist in her mouth.

"Come again?" Adriyana said, squinting up at her.

"You have a strange aura surrounding you, dear," Chauncey said, turning her gaze to Peter.

_'Short attention span much?' _Alice wrote on her walkie-talkie paper. Sirius and Adriyana snickered.

"My inner eye tells me that you aren't paying attention, Miss Dumbledore," Professor Chauncey whirled back towards Adriyana. "Why don't you look into The Orb and tell us what Peter here has in store."

"Okay, then. Er…" Adriyana looked into the crystal ball but couldn't see anything but fog. "Pete…I see…Oh! I see a very attractive female in here!"—Peter looked up hopefully—"yes, very attractive indeed, maybe you'll get a girlfr—oh…that's just my reflection…well, I don't see anything, then," Adriyana said looking up from the crystal ball. Alice had to bite her fist again. Sirius just smiled.

"Miss Dumbledore! If you can't take this seriously, then maybe you just don't have the inner eye!" Professor Chauncey said, then stormed away to help another table.

Adriyana shot a quizzical look at Alice, who still had her fist in her mouth, and both of them cracked up.

"Prank Chauncey? Why so sudden, Padfoot?" James asked, as the four Marauders walked down the spiraling staircase of North Tower.

"She just…is overdue, is all," Sirius said. "Plus, I've thought of the best prank ever to use on her! It's genius!"

"Well, what is it?" James asked urgently.

"Okay…what's Chauncey's biggest fear?"

"Um…dark omens?" Peter said, shrugging.

"Yeah. And what's the darkest omen there is?" Sirius asked.

"The Grim. Everyone knows—" Remus began, and then broke off, looking at Sirius, who was grinning maniacally.

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That night, Adriyana was walking through the halls alone. She had left her friends behind in the common room in favor of some time alone to think, and now she had the perfect place. The statue of the One-Eyed Witch Sirius had taken her through back on their (disastrous) second date. Apparently Remus used it as a quiet place to think (among other things), so why couldn't she?

As she was walking, she realized something very important. Without Sirius, she had no idea where to go. She had just been wandering around, thinking she was going the right way, but she suddenly noticed that she was completely lost. In a way, it was Sirius' fault she was lost, because she had been too busy thinking about him to notice where she was going.

Sirius, the boy she was in love with after only three short months. Sirius, the only boy who could turn her legs to jelly with his smoldering grey stare.

"I love Sirius," she said, loving the way the words sounded together. Now if only she could say them to his face.

"RUN! EVERYONE RUN! IT'S THE GRIM!" an urgent voice screamed from down the deserted hall.

"Wha—" Adriyana began, but what the screaming was suddenly became abundantly clear.

Professor Chauncey ran past Adriyana, closely followed by a huge black dog.

They turned down a hallway, and the screaming voice got quieter and quieter. Adriyana stared down the hall in shocked silence. "Okay…that was NOT normal!" she said to herself, and began laughing, before letting her thoughts return to Sirius.

She didn't understand how everyone said love could be terrible. Terrifying, maybe. Truthfully, Adriyana had never felt more amazing ever since she realized that she was in love.

Maybe because she thought Sirius felt the same way.

At that moment, Adriyana knew she was ready to tell Sirius that she loved him. Now all she had to do was find him. Where was he? More importantly, where was she? In all of her years at Hogwarts, she was fairly sure she had never been down this corridor before, but it was in a right state. The walls were nearly collapsing, and the whole place looked rather decrepit.

She heard a crumbling noise from up above her. She looked up, and her eyes widened in fear.

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Sirius was still laughing hysterically as he told Peter and Remus about the prank. James had gone out to get them some chocolate and butterbeer from the kitchens to celebrate.

"Hey, guys, have you seen Agie recently?" Amber asked, walking up to them.

"Oh, I saw her about an hour ago…but wasn't she with you?" Sirius asked her worriedly. The last time he had seen her, he was Padfoot, and he was chasing Chauncey through the halls.

"No, I haven't seen her in forever!" Amber said, then motioned to Lily and Alice, who had walked up next to her. "None of us have."

"Well, where could she be?"

"She said she went out to 'think' after dinner…that's the last time we saw her," Lily said.

James walked through the portrait hole just then, without any food. He was pale as a ghost.

"I seem to notice a distinct lack of food, Prongs," Peter said, staring sadly at James' empty hands.

James ignored him, and took a deep breath as he reached them. All of them could tell instantly that something was wrong. James looked incredibly distraught.

"Did something happen?" Remus asked. James collapsed on the couch and put his head into his hands. Then he nodded.

"What is it?" Lily asked.

James lifted his face. He looked caught between shock and sadness. "Adriyana…" he said, paling even more and looking down glumly. Sirius' heart skipped a beat.

"WHAT? WHERE IS SHE?" Sirius yelled urgently, jumping off his chair and running up to James.

"She's at…" James said quietly, but the next thing he said was too quiet for any of them to hear. They all knew something was up, though. Amber had grabbed Remus' hand tightly and Lily had her face in her hands.

James took another deep breath and opened his mouth. The next words he said made were quite possibly the most horrifying words Sirius had ever heard.

"She's at St. Mungo's."

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A/N- Poor Sirius! I keep making cliffhangers. Sorry, it's too much fun. I kind of hate myself for doing this to Sirius, though. Confused? Well, what happened to Adriyana is supposed to be confusing. You'll find out exactly what happened to her next chapter.

Tell me nice things and I'll love you forever!


	13. The Generically Titled Chapter Thirteen

Disclaimer: If JKR and I were in kindergarten together, she's the nice little girl who's sharing her dolls with me. I promise to give them back.

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**Chapter 13--Hostile Suits of Armor: The Ultimate Antidepressant**

Sirius just stared at James blankly.

"What?" It was Lily who spoke, her voice soft and fearful.

"I don't exactly know what happened. I passed Professor Dumbledore in the hallway, and I saw Agie being rushed to the hospital. Dumbledore told me to get you guys and then he'd explain everything to us in his office." All of them hurried out of Gryffindor Tower.

Sirius had never gotten to the Headmaster's office faster before. He didn't know the password, so he had to wait for the girls, James, Peter, and Remus to catch up.

"Lemon Drop!" James said as the rest of them were catching their breath. The gargoyle sprang out of the way, revealing the spiraling staircase that led to the Headmaster's office.

Once inside, they saw a sad-looking Albus Dumbledore pacing around the office.

"Sir!" Amber called. He looked up and saw them, and motioned with his hand for them to sit down on the couch. They did.

"I assume you're all curious as to the condition of Adriyana?" he said.

"Please, sir, is she all right?" Lily asked.

"I was just about to go and see for myself, but, as her friends, I believe you deserve to know what is going on."

"What exactly happened to her, sir?"

"Adriyana was walking down a hallway near the dungeons, where the walls aren't very sturdy. We don't use those classrooms anymore, you see, so I'm a bit curious at to why she would even be down there at all. Well, as I explained, the walls were crumbling, and a chunk of the wall broke off and hit Adriyana in the head," Albus explained.

Lily, Amber, and Alice had tears falling down their faces, and Sirius looked terrified. "And why is she in St. Mungo's?" Sirius asked nervously.

"Well, the blow to the head Adriyana received was enough to knock her unconscious, and I think the magic in the walls did something as well…she needs to be given a couple of specific potions which we don't have at Hogwarts, but after they are administered, we just have to wait for her to wake up, and she will be back at the school for that."

"When, sir?" Alice asked.

"Hmmm…about a week, I expect."

Sirius felt a lead weight drop in his stomach. He wouldn't even see Adriyana for a week, and who knows when he would see her in her conscious state? Why did this have to happen every time something really great was going on in his life?

"Do you have any more questions?"

"Are you going to visit her now, and if so…can we come with you?" Lily asked. Sirius looked up at Dumbledore.

"I suppose I could take…two of you," Dumbledore said. Sirius immediately stood up. Dumbledore had to let him go.

"Okay then, Mr. Black and…Miss Evans? You two?" Dumbledore said, because Lily had stood up as well. Amber and Alice nodded in agreement.

"I hope I don't have to remind you to be quiet and courteous in the hospital, particularly at this hour," Dumbledore said. Sirius and Lily nodded. "Now, when we get there, you two go find Adriyana's room; I have some questions to ask the Healers."

They nodded again, and Dumbledore went over to his desk and picked up some paper and a quill. He scribbled something on the scrap of paper and handed it to his phoenix, which immediately disappeared in a ball of flames. He looked at Peter, James, Remus, Alice, and Amber. "You five will wait for Professor McGonagall to come up here and escort you back to Gryffindor Tower," Dumbledore said. Sirius assumed that was where the phoenix was headed. He watched as his five friends nodded slowly.

Dumbledore picked up a container filled with Floo powder and held it out to Lily, who took a pinch, walked up to the fire, and threw it in. the flames turned emerald green and Lily climbed in called, "St. Mungo's!" and whirled out of sight.

"Mr. Black…you next," Dumbledore said, holding out the pot. Sirius hastily scooped out a handful of the powder and copied Lily's actions, and before he knew it, he was thrown out of another fireplace, landing in what he recognized as the lobby of St. Mungo's.

Lily helped him up and smiled at him. "Sirius, she'll be all right… let's go and find her."

They walked up to the front desk, where a grumpy-looking witch was sitting, reading a magazine. "Excuse me? We're looking for Adriyana Dumbledore?"

"Dumbledore? Let's see…" she said, going through a drawer. "Okay…head trauma…she's on the ground floor, room twelve," said the witch, pointing down a hallway near them before turning back to her magazine.

Sirius, who had frozen when he heard the witch say the words "head trauma," began running down the hallway, and Lily chased after him. Once they reached room twelve, they saw that the door to the room was slightly ajar, and they could hear a whispered conversation being held inside:

"—some strange magic in the walls, it's affected her," one voice said. Sirius went white.

"Luckily some of the magic prevented the brick from killing her on impact, but she'll need to be given a lot of potions to reverse some of these spells."

"She'll need these fifteen potions tonight and tomorrow… and these, the school's matron will have to give her until she wakes up."

Lily knocked quietly on the door, and the conversation stopped. Someone opened the door.

"Hello, I'm Healer Leroy. Can I help you two?"

"Yes, we're friends of Adriyana's from school. The Headmaster said we could come and see her?"

"Fat lot of good it'll do you, the poor girl's out cold. Well, come in."

Sirius and Lily walked into the room, first passing an empty bed, and next to that, there was a cart holding many bottles of potions. The Healer who was talking to Healer Leroy was mixing something on the cart. The only other bed in the room had the curtains drawn around it. "She's in there," Healer Leroy said, as he also busied himself with the potions on the cart.

Sirius let Lily go ahead of him, not sure if he was ready to see what Adriyana looked like. When Lily went in, he heard her let out a horrified gasp and then shortly after that, he heard sobbing. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and went through the curtain.

There was Adriyana, lying on the bed, with her eyelids closed, her skin a pasty white, and her hair tangled. She looked terrible. Then Sirius saw what Lily was sobbing over. On Adriyana's head was a gigantic purple, somewhat bloody bruise. He didn't know how he missed it the first time he looked. Attached to Adriyana were some Muggle-style I.V. tubes, connected to several different types of potions.

"Sirius, she looks like a ghost…" Lily said. Sirius was, for the first time in his life, on the verge of tears. He picked up Adriyana's hand, which was unsurprisingly cold, and felt nothing like the hands he had held before, and put his thumb to her wrist. The soft, yet steady thumping of her pulse soothed him, and he felt relieved for the first time that night.

He gently placed her hand back on the bed and looked at her face sadly. When would he see her glittering violet eyes again? Or hear her infectious laugh? Or feel her soft lips on his? Would he EVER get to tell her that he loved her?

"I'll be right back, Sirius," Lily whispered, and she walked out of the curtain. As soon as he and Adriyana were alone, he felt hot tears spring up in his eyes. He reached up and began brushing through her hair with his fingers, smoothing it out. He placed his other hand on her cold cheek, suddenly feeling a painful ache to speak to her again, to let her know how he felt.

After a few minutes, Lily re-entered the curtains. She held a jar of thick yellow paste and a big wad of cotton. She walked over to the other side of Adriyana, where the bruise was, and her tears began falling faster. With a shaky hand, she dipped the cotton into the jar and began to dab it on the bruise.

"Lily, what are you doing?"

"This will help the bruise go away. Healer Leroy said I could put it on, he showed me how and all, see?" she said, gently rubbing the saturated cotton in circles on Adriyana's bruise.

Sirius and Lily spent another hour by Adriyana's side, before Healer Leroy and the Healer he was talking to when they entered came in holding a long length of gauze and said he had to bandage up Adriyana's head. When they walked out of the room, red-eyed, Albus Dumbledore was waiting for them.

"You two have to get back to school. It's nearly midnight. Minerva will be waiting for you in my office to take you back to Gryffindor Tower…and Adriyana will be back in the Hospital Wing shortly."

"Can't I stay here tonight, sir?" Sirius asked. Then he realized Adriyana's grandfather was probably the wrong person to say that to.

He just smiled weakly. "As much as I'm sure Adriyana would like you by her side, Mr. Black, her condition will not improve, and you have classes tomorrow."

"But—" He sighed; arguing wouldn't do him any good at this point. "Okay, sir. See you at school," Sirius sighed, and he and Lily traveled back to the lobby to Floo back to Hogwarts.

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A/N-Okay, mostly depression in this part. Now, as a WW-P South Spirit Week (What? I need a holiday, and that's my High School) Treat, I'm DOUBLE POSTING! Two chapters in one! If yo review both, I'll love you FOREVER! Or, I may update faster, and trust me, after you read the next one, you'll need it.


	14. TGT Chapter Thirteen, Continued

**Everyone, this is VERY inportant! That's why I'm writing in BOLD! okay, listen up. THIS IS CHAPTER FOURTEEN, THE SECOND CHAPTER IN A DOUBLE POST. Okay, enought CAPSLOCK!padfootandme4ever, just listen. If this is the first upate you're reading today, go back, there's another chapter before this one. **

**That is all.**

_Dear Diary,_

_This CANNOT be happening. No, I'm not even talking about the Agie-In-The-Hospital thing; I mean the James-Potter-Won't-Leave-My-Head thing. Not in the bad 'He's so annoying' way, either. In the 'Wow, he looks good' kind of way. He's honestly not as bad as I thought he was, though. He's a truly loyal friend; Sirius is a wreck and he couldn't be nicer. I like that in a man. Not that I want James, or anything._

_I think._

_Lily_

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Sirius found it hard to enjoy anything since Adriyana had gone to St. Mungo's. He felt guilty feeling happy when his true love was out cold in the hospital. Albus Dumbledore had forbade him from visiting her again after the first night, saying that she would be back before he knew it, and Adriyana wouldn't want him sitting by her unconscious form all day when he had other things he could be doing.

It had been six days since the accident, and Sirius sat alone at the Gryffindor table eating his breakfast. He had been waking up earlier than the other Marauders so that he cold eat his breakfasts alone.

Sirius looked up from his porridge to see Lily sprinting across the Great Hall up to him. She had a small grin on her face.

"Sirius! Sirus!" she called, and everyone in the Great Hall turned to look. "She's here! Adriyana's been released and she's in the Hospital Wing!"

Porridge forgotten, Sirius ran to the Hospital Wing, Lily on his tail. "She's still out cold, but she's loads better!" she called from behind him.

Sirius reached the Hospital Wing and began walking more quietly to Pomfrey's office. He wanted to get on her good side, and there was nothing like being nice and quiet.

After he and Lily had gotten the okay, he went over to the first of the two beds that were actually occupied. "I don't think this is her," Lily said. The person sleeping on this bed was definitely not Adriyana.

"What was your first hint, Evans? The fact that he's a male, has no bruise on his head, or the sign above him that says Howes, Jeremy?"

Lily mumbled something and went very red, then dashed over to the bed that they now knew was Adriyana's. "Women…" Sirius muttered, as he followed her.

If he thought the sight of Adriyana would cheer him up again, he was sorely mistaken. One look at her pale complexion, limp hair, and heavily bandaged head made him depressed all over again.

Lily saw his face "I'll just...go…now," she said, throwing a glance at the sleeping form of Jeremy Howes as she ran out of the Hospital Wing.

Sirius sat down in the chair next to Adriyana's bed and picked up her hand. He noticed that the fading purple nail polish she wore was the same color as her eyes and smiled weakly.

"Adriyana, wake up soon…you have no idea how much I miss you…your eyes, your laugh, your smile…I want them all back so badly…I want you in my arms again. Please, get better soon," Sirius croaked.

He stroked her bandaged head softly, careful not to put any pressure in fear of hurting her or making the condition worse. He couldn't do anything that would prolong the length of Adriyana's unconsciousness.

"Adriyana…please get better soon…" Sirius repeated. "I-I lo…" He couldn't get the words out, because at that moment he looked at her.

And he could swear he thought he saw her eyelashes flutter.

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"Padfoot, wake up!"

"What is going on, guys?" Sirius asked groggily, rubbing his eyes. he had fallen asleep by the side of Adriyana's bed in the Hospital Wing.

"We came up with a brilliant prank to cheer you up!" Peter said. "We even got Moony in on it!" Remus nodded vigorously.

"Hurry up! They'll all be headed to dinner soon, it'll be perfect!" James said. Sirius got up from his spot by Adriyana's bed and followed the three of them out. When they got to the corridor in front of the Great Hall James pulled the silvery Invisibility Cloak out of his rucksack. All four of them crowded under it with great difficulty; it was getting harder and harder every year to fit all of them under it, because Sirius kept getting taller and Peter kept getting wider. Sirius still had no idea what they were planning.

"Oh! Someone's coming!" James said, and they all looked up expectantly.

"What—" Sirius began.

"Oh, it's a Hufflepuff. Never mind," Peter said.

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Sirius asked.

"Just wait, Padfoot," Remus whispered.

And they did. After two minutes, three Gryffindors, a Ravenclaw, and six Hufflepuffs had walked down the hallway, and nothing had happened. Then they saw a figure moving down the hallway wearing a silver and green scarf.

"Excellent!" James whispered, rubbing his hands together as the Slytherin got closer.

He was just about to walk past a suit of armor when—

WHAM! The armor started moving, and its foot rose up, kicking the Slytherin boy in a place boys don't generally want to be kicked in.

Remus cringed before joining Peter and James, who were laughing hysterically. Sirius just smiled weakly. Why did everything have to remind him of Adriyana? This just reminded him of how she kicked Broderick Thomas, and how the two of them got together. Any other day his sides would be splitting, but he kept thinking about Adriyana, lying unconscious in the Hospital Wing.

"Padfoot, she'd want you to laugh. Come on, this is pranking gold!" James said. He was right, too. The next Slytherin that walked past happened to be one of the Slytherin Quidditch Team's Beaters, and after he got kicked, Sirius started enjoying himself.

Eventually, the attack armor got Snivellus, and he was lying on the ground in pain for a full five minutes. Sirius had a feeling that James had jinxed the statue to kick him harder.

Right now, the hallway was empty, Snape having hobbled off a few minutes ago. Sirius smiled at his fellow Marauders, all four of them had tears of mirth in their eyes. Thank Merlin he had friends like them.

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"That's it, you! Out!" Madam Pomfrey scolded Sirius, as she came up to Adriyana's bed with yet another tray of oddly colored Potions. She sat the tray down on Adriyana's bedside. "You heard me, out! It's three minutes to curfew!"

Sirius stood up wearily and walked back to Gryffindor Tower. It was true what everyone was saying: Adriyana wouldn't want him sitting by her bedside for a good part of the day, his heart leaping every time he thought he saw her finger twitch.

Sirius walked into his dormitory. Remus was reading (big surprise), James was doing homework (No, really…big surprise), and Peter was asleep. Sirius just collapsed onto his bed, lying awake for hours.

He dreamed that Lily was sobbing over James' unconscious body, confessing her secret love for him…Adriyana was there, too, but Slytherins kept throwing chunks of brick wall at her. Professor Chauncey was pointing at him, yelling, "IT'S THE GRIM! THE GRIM!!"

Needless to day, Sirius didn't sleep very well that night.

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"Sirius! Wake up!" a girl's voice called, rousing him from his odd dream.

"Wha--?" Sirius said, still half asleep.

"Sirius! Now!" the voice called again, and something whacked him on the head.

Sirius looked up. All he saw was a mess of red hair. "Lily? Why are you here so early?"

"Sirius, it's ten in the morning. Here, read this," she demanded, thrusting a piece of paper at him.

Once his eyes adjusted to the light, he read the letter:

_Dear Miss Evans,_

_Would you please come to the Hospital Wing as soon as possible? Bring as many of Miss Dumbledore's friends as you can._

_Sincerely,_

_Madam Pomfrey, School Matron_

Sirius stared at the letter as Lily cringed.

"What?" he asked her.

"I have to wake up Potter!" she wailed.

Sirius just wanted to get to Adriyana, something was definitely going on--Sirius' heart leaped—she could be awake.

Something disrupted Sirius' thoughts. "WHOA! EVANS?" came James' voice, at a much higher octave than normal. Once James had gotten over his initial shock of having the object of his affections sitting on the edge of his bed, Lily left the room and Sirius and James got dressed. The two of them (Remus and Peter were already awake and off doing whatever) went down to the common room to find Lily, Amber, and Alice already down there.

"Okay, let's go!" Amber said.

"What exactly is going on?" Sirius asked.

"All we know is what was in that note," Alice told him.

The five of them walked the rest of the way to the Hospital Wing in silence. They reached it very quickly, and Madam Pomfrey was standing worriedly at the door.

"Hello, Madam Pomfrey," Lily said.

"Hello. I need you all to come with me," she said. "It's Adriyana."

Sirius' heart skipped a few beats, which is not something you want to happen to you. What was wrong with her? Was she awake? Was he never going to see her again? He shuddered at the thought.

"We think she has--oh, well just come see for yourselves. She's over here, but I must ask you not to react in any way to her, don't touch her, don't say anything to her," Madam Pomfrey said. "Just keep perfectly still."

"She—SHE'S AWAKE?" Sirius half-shouted.

"Well, yes, but--just come over here!" Madam Pomfrey said. "We need you to help us perform another test."

Sirius' heart was pounding a mile a minute with the intense excitement of finally having Adriyana back again. He noticed that the bed she had been in now had its curtains drawn around it.

"I want to warn you…all of you will be very shocked by what she says, assuming my theory is correct…and I just want you to know that this…thing is curable, you may just have to spend more time with her than normal."

Sirius figured that wasn't so bad…whatever Adriyana had, he would do anything to get her through it…to have the old Adriyana back.

They all entered the curtains, and Sirius smiled. There she was, sitting up in bed, reading one of those hospital magazines about your stomach or brain or some other body part you didn't really want to know about. Her eyes stared at the pages, a blank, glazed expression crossing her face. She didn't even look up. It took a lot of Sirius' willpower to restrain himself and stay perfectly silent.

"Adriyana?" Madam Pomfrey asked. Adriyana still stared blankly at the magazine. "That's you, dear," Madam Pomfrey nudged Adriyana's shoulder.

'_What was that about?'_ Sirius thought, but his attention soon became focused on Adriyana, who had turned to look at all of them. She didn't smile or acknowledge them at all; she just looked confused.

"I'm Adriyana?" she said, her voice raspy, possibly from lack of use. Sirius looked at James, confused, and he mirrored the expression.

"Yes, dear. I need you to tell me," Madam Pomfrey said, standing back so that all five of them were in Adriyana's view. "Do you recognize any of these people, or remember seeing them at any time in your life before?"

Adriyana looked all of them up and down, her expression still blank.

"No."

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A/N- Okay, I'm sorry for the two-cliffies-in-a-row deal, but I basically had no plot at all between the two. Now I can move on to the FUN part. Don't worry…your fluffy romance scenes will come VERY soon…especially the Lily/James ones. So, anyway, please review!


	15. Stage 2: Anger

Disclaimer: All hail JKR, owner of the Potterverse and all who dwell within.

"You're kidding, right?" Lily said.

"I don't see what's so funny. Where am I again?" Adriyana said, looking around nervously.

"Er…this is kind of strange…let's see…I'm Alice, and this is Amber and Lily. We're your best friends."

"Isn't that a bit presumptuous of you?" Adriyana said, though they all assumed she was kidding. "Go on….who are you two?" She pointed at James and Sirius.

"I'm James Potter…I'm smart, funny, attractive, athletic, and also incredibly modest," James said.

"That's…nice," Adriyana said, giving James the first warm smile they had seen on her face in a while. Lily glared at her.

"And I'm Sirius…I'm your boyfriend."

"Okay…awkward," Adriyana muttered, sending Sirius into shocked silence. "This place gives me the creeps…when can I leave?"

She looked so lost and helpless it took all of Sirius' willpower not to throw his arms around her then and there. He knew he really shouldn't, seeing as she thought she'd just met him. He would just have to restrain himself until she remembered everything again.

This wasn't going to be easy.

---------------------------------------------------

To Madam Pomfrey's relief, Adriyana was released the very next day. Apparently she was asking absurdly annoying questions, such as: "Who are you?" and "Who am I?" fifty times an hour. The pre-accident Adriyana would have gotten a real kick out of that, but maybe she wasn't kidding now…

Sirius followed the girls when they went to the hospital wing so that they could get her and escort her back to Gryffindor Tower. They got there and saw a very forlorn-looking Adriyana standing by the door. Madam Pomfrey simply nodded at them as she walked by, carrying a steaming goblet of some kind of potion for another student. They took this as their cue to leave.

Adriyana smiled and looked at the four of them. "Hey guys! Let's see…You're…er…"

"Lily. This is Amber, Alice, and—"

"My boyfriend, right?" Sirius heart leapt. She remembered something, and that had to be a good sign, right? "I forgot your name, though." Well, so much for that.

"I'm Sirius," he said.

"Like the adjective?" Adriyana said. Lily groaned, and once again, Sirius noted, partially in amazement, that there was someone in the world who could make fun of his name and not be getting their face punched in a second later.

"Sure…" he said, giving her what he hoped was a kind smile.

"Hey, where's that guy with the hair?" Adriyana asked. Though this was normally a very broad question, as many "guys" in Hogwarts indeed had hair, they all knew she meant James.

"He's asleep, maybe? Why?" Lily said. Sirius thought he heard a hint of bitterness in her voice. He had kind of noticed Lily did this whenever anyone talked about James in front of her. Well, in a different way than she used to, at least. It was quite odd, really.

They got to the portrait of the Fat Lady. Adriyana looked up at it, her eyes widening in shock.

"I could swear that painting just blinked at me…" Adriyana said.

"Yes, they will do that sometimes," Lily said, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"Password?" the Fat Lady asked. Adriyana screamed and looked like she was about ready to start tearing down the hall. Out of the corner of his eye Sirius saw Lily smirking. What was wrong with her?

----------------------------------------------------

What was wrong with her?

Lily hated herself. She really did. She was supposed to be the nice and caring one, the one who would bend over backwards for a friend in need, yet she could not stop herself from being…well, a complete jerk, especially towards Adriyana.

She didn't fail to notice that it only happened when Adriyana talked about James.

Take now, for instance. They were sitting in the common room, and James was introducing Adriyana to everyone. Sirius was helping him, though he looked slightly less amused. Amber and Alice were taking to Remus, Peter, and Frank…

And Lily was glaring at all of them from across the room.

She actually knew what was happening to her, though she would rather swallow poison than admit it. She hated her brain for betraying her and thinking about it anyway.

_I'm jealous. I was jealous that Adriyana was getting into such a successful relationship when I didn't have one. There was finally something she had that I couldn't have. Now that that relationship is failing, which, in some sick way, I'm happy about, she's taking comfort in James. And I'm not happy about the fact that I'm not happy about that._

Well, she was very good at confusing herself, at least.

----------------------------------------------------------------

James tried to get Adriyana to just be calm and start talking to Sirius again, but she kept following him around like a lost dog, calling him Jaeger.

Last time James checked, Jaeger wasn't his name. In fact, he wasn't even sure that _was_ a real name.

At first, he thought playing "the nice guy" for Adriyana would get him into Lily's good books. But one of the few times he chanced a glance at her, she was glaring daggers at him.

James sighed mentally. How could someone he felt so strongly about have such adverse feelings towards him? It wasn't fair! He kicked a nearby coffee table, causing Adriyana to jump.

"Oh, sorry," he mumbled.

"It's okay, J—"

"James."

"Right. I knew that," she said, then turned back to Sirius, who was helping her learn her schedule and where her classes were. James looked up at Lily again. Why was she still glaring at him? Maybe because he was ignoring Adriyana? Maybe if he looked like he was helping her more…

James sat down next to Adriyana and put a comforting hand on her shoulder, then helped Sirius explain her schedule to her.

That's right, James Potter, now helping others in need. Lily wouldn't be able to resist his philanthroposity. If that was a word.

Well, if Jaeger could be a word, anything was possible…

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"Which door is ours?"

"The one with 'Sixth Years' written on it. Because we're in our sixth year. Do you see how that works?" Lily said, hating herself for the sarcasm, yet unable to stop.

"Okay," Adriyana said, a little nervously. Lily got the feeling that Adriyana couldn't wait to find someone else to talk to. Adriyana walked a little faster up the stairs, until she got to their door and opened it.

"Wow…where are all these roses from?"

"They're yours. From your boyfriend. Because he's so perfect, so nice, and so great, and you love him…you know what? I'm going to bed. Goodnight!" Lily almost screamed, pulling her curtains shut violently.

"Well, that definitely could have gone better," Adriyana whispered, before Alice walked in, spending a good fifteen minutes teaching Adriyana how to use her various magical possessions. By the time Adriyana pulled Lily's curtains back so that they could talk, the redhead had lapsed into a rather fitful sleep.

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Sirius wasn't sure he could take much more of this.

The next morning, he was waiting for Adriyana and her friends to come down the stairs. He thought that even though she was having trouble remembering his name, he should make an extra effort to be there for her. He was willing to do anything that might help her to remember him faster.

"Morning, Padfoot!" Peter said, bounding up behind him.

"Hey, Wormtail. I'll be down to breakfast in a minute. I'm waiting for Agie…unless you want to wait with me?"

"I would, but you know what today is. I'll just meet you down there," Peter said, leaving a snickering Sirius behind him. Today was one of James' bi-weekly "torture the Slytherins" days.

Adriyana, Amber, and Lily came down the stairs. Lily was glaring coldly at the back of Adriyana's head. Sirius frowned as the three walked up to them.

"I really like this red and gold tie! It's cool," Adriyana said as she fingered the tie around her neck.

"Funny, you used to think it clashed horribly with your eyes and made you look terrible," Lily said.

"Gee, I never thought of that, but thanks so much for pointing out that possibility," Adriyana said, rolling her eyes. Apparently she and Lily weren't getting along so well "You know, you're not very nice."

Lily just scowled at her. "Come on, Adriyana. Let's go to the Great Hall. This way," Amber said, pulling Adriyana away from Lily.

"Evans, what's the matter with you? Did she do anything?" Sirius said to Lily, now that the two of them were alone.

"No, it's just…I don't even know!" Lily said, clenching her fists angrily.

"Then stop it! You…well, you should be ashamed of yourself! She needs us right now!" Sirius said. Lily stepped closer to him in anger, looking as if she would love nothing more than to blindfold him and fling him out the window of Gryffindor Tower. He held her intense emerald-green stare, meeting it with an equal intensity. They stood there, just glaring at each other, for quite a long time, until the anger her eyes held left and was replaced by…sadness? Loss? Well, something he couldn't quite place, but whatever it was, James would have his head on a pike for making Lily look like that.

"Well, maybe I need someone too!" Lily said, before whirling around and racing back up the girls' stairs.

Sirius could only stand there, confused, wondering if he'd ever really understand women.

Doubtful.

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Sirius headed down to the Great Hall, taking a seat between Adriyana and James and across from Peter.

"Have you guys seen that ceiling?" Adriyana said, looking up at the ceiling, this morning a clear blue sky, in awe.

"Yeah…we've noticed it," Peter said flatly.

"And look at this fork! Have you ever seen a gold fork before?"

Sirius held up his own fork for her to see. "For the last six years."

"Oh…right. So we have History of Magic next? Is that any good?"

"Oh yeah, it's more fun than spending the summer at Sirius' house!" James said enthusiastically. Sirius kicked him from under the table. "What? It's true!"

Adriyana just stared at them blankly. It was awful that she had no idea what they were talking about, whereas the real Adriyana (and Sirius hated to call her this, even mentally, because she was still the same person) knew almost everything there was to know about Sirius' life--he had felt so comfortable telling her everything--and now it was basically all for nothing.

Something heavy fell on his shoulder. He shook himself out of his daze. He couldn't see exactly what it was, because a mess of brown waves were obstructing his vision. He pushed them out of his eyes, and saw that a hysterically laughing Adriyana had collapsed on him.

He looked over towards James, who shrugged and said, "I didn't think it was that funny…I told her about that bit in our fourth year, you know, when we charmed people's pants to sing…but she's overreacting just a tad, don't you think?"

He turned back to Adriyana, who had stopped laughing and was looking at them and examining her cutlery again. He must have imagined it, but as he was turning away he thought he saw her wink at James from the corner of his eye.

----------------------------------------------------

_He loves me…he loves me not…he loves me— _

Lily snapped the last petal off of James' gift. She just knew he had put that many petals on there on purpose. She was a little worried about how quickly her heart was pounding.

Could she possibly be starting to like James Potter?

No, the whole lily-petals thing was just stupid, there was a fifty-fifty shot, so why was she getting so worked up about it?

_It's because you like him._

_…Oh, Merlin, I think it is…but he's still the same arrogant jerk he was last year!_

_Are you sure about that?_

_Ye-well, no, but it's not like I have the guts to actually get serious about James anyway, not after six years of the way I've treated him._

_But—_

_Shut up, Lily._

Oh, joy. Now on top of all the James stuff, Lily has schizophrenia to worry about.

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That next morning, Lily, Amber, Alice, and Adriyana, whose memory still hadn't progressed one bit (though it should be by now, according to Pomfrey), walked down the corridor to Transfiguration. Lily knew it was partially her fault Adriyana's wasn't getting any better.

Well, mostly her fault. Okay, she had to stop flying off the handle. So far, her first day being the kind, gentle Lily was working out pretty well.

Then again, nobody had brought up James yet.

Then again…again, that didn't mean she wasn't thinking about him.

"Hey you guys…where's Agie?" Sirius asked as the girls passed where the Marauders were standing in the corridor.

"First of all, you have to call her Adriyana for now. And what are you talking about? She's right…" Lily looked at the now empty spot Adriyana had been standing in just a second ago. "Oopsie…"

"How could you guys lose her?!" Sirius said.

"We didn't! She's right over there, talking to…oh, honey!" Amber called, as she darted down a corridor and out of sight. A second later, she reappeared, dragging Adriyana behind her by the arm.

"Okay, Adriyana…that boy you were talking to? His name's—"

"Broderick Thomas. He told me."

"Yeah…you don't like him," Amber said, while behind her, Sirius nodded vigorously.

"Oh?" Adriyana said, tilting her head.

"…he's not nice," Lily added.

"Okay, I trust you guys…but he has a blue tie. I thought I was only avoiding people with green ties," Adriyana said, looking confused.

"How about you stay by us?" James said kindly, and Adriyana smiled at him. Lily clenched her wand so tightly in her hand that she nearly snapped it.

"Okay, Thanks…er…"

"Jaeger," Peter supplied, grinning. James whapped him in the back of the head.

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Sirius hated this. Maybe it would have been more bearable if Adriyana showed at least some sign of improvement, but she still had trouble remembering things as simple as her friends' names. He wanted to help her remember everything, him especially, but it didn't seem like there was anything he could possibly do.

He looked out the window of the dormitory onto the grounds; the thick blanket of snow that lay there was rough with footprints, attempts at snowmen, and—

Motorcycle tracks. That was it. If he could get Adriyana to go for a ride with him on that motorcycle, she would surely remember him, right? I mean, she did get it for him.

Well, according to James, Adriyana paid for half of it and researched all the spells they needed, but she was a terrible mechanic.

Whatever. The motorcycle thing would still work. He just had to convince Adriyana to go with him.

"Hey, Ag--Adriyana!" It was hard to remember to call her by her entire first name again.

"Yeah?" Adriyana said, looking up from where she was sitting on the floor, doing her Transfiguration homework. Apparently, the amnesia didn't affect her academic skills in the slightest.

"Come with me, I have something that may help you remember some stuff," he said, holding out his hand to her. She took it, and he helped her up, but after she was standing, she let go.

He tried to ignore that. "Come on, this way!" Sirius said, pulling her towards the portrait hole. She grabbed her cloak, which was lying next to her, and followed him out.

"Are you sure we're supposed to be in here?" Adriyana asked him, as she stood in the doorway of the shed that Hagrid stored magical gamekeeping items in, and the home of Sirius' bike.

"Don't be nervous, just trust me," Sirius said, pushing the bike out of the shed, clutching the handles of the bike tightly so that his hands wouldn't travel in Adriyana's direction…again.

"Sure," Adriyana said, smiling at him. He smiled back.

"Okay," he said, putting a helmet on her head very gently. Merlin forbid anything else happen to her already damaged skull or she might never remember anything again. "Now sit here, and wrap your arms around my waist. Like that," Sirius said, adjusting her arms. He imagined she was slightly uncomfortable, but she'd feel better when the bike got in the air.

A second later, the bike was speeding across the grounds, and then rising into the air. It was more exhilarating every time he went for a ride.

Behind him, Adriyana let out a terrified scream. He could feel her nails digging into him, and she buried her face into his shoulder from behind. What was wrong? Adriyana most definitely didn't normally act like this when she rode with him.

As much as he was desperate for any kind of physical contact between them at all at this point, Sirius grounded the bike, and hit the brakes. Adriyana's face was pale and scared-looking.

"What's wrong?" he asked, suddenly very concerned. What had happened?

"You didn't tell me it FLEW!" Adriyana said, her voice wavering somewhere between scared and angry.

"Oh, Merlin, I'm sorry. It's hard to remember how much you've forgotten," he said. How could he have been so stupid?

She smiled weakly at him. "This must be extremely hard for you," she said. He noticed that whenever she spoke, she usually refrained from saying anyone's names. She could only remember Lily's name as of now, which made him mad. Where did Lily get off being such a prat to Adriyana, to be the only one whose name she could remember? "I hope I get better soon, all of you seem like great friends."

She helped him get the bike back into the shed, and as the two of them walked back to the castle, he noticed her smiling at him.

-----------------------------------------------------

_'This isn't happening. It CAN'T be!'_

_'But it is, Lily. It's about time you accepted it and—'_

_'Begin my life of solitude?'_

_'That's a little extreme, don't you think?'_

_'It's better than me…ME!...starting to like James Potter!'_

That's all it is, right? She was only starting to like him. She wasn't in so deep yet that she couldn't hoist herself out.

But did she really want to?

A/N- Had fun with this one! I especially like the random Schizophrenic!Lily scenes. And I'm pretty sure Jaeger is the name of a kind of alcoholic beverage…or something like that…being too young to drink, I shouldn't really know. So, review and tell me what you think! I'll give you a cookie…no, wait, that cookie dough stuff. You know, Break 'n Bake? Mmm…


	16. On Why Patience Isn't a Very Fun Virtue

Disclaimer: Stuff…

_Dear Diary,_

_It's getting harder and harder to avoid him now. Today was our Quidditch game against Hufflepuff…James scored twenty-three goals! Do you believe that? He's—I mean, that's amazing! We won, despite the fact that Agie didn't catch the Snitch. I think we're lucky that she even remembered how to play at all, actually. Anyway, what was I talking about before?…Oh, now I remember. Thanks for that. I mean, it's crazy, but it's like I'm noticing things about him for the first time. Do you know what color his eyes are? I do. I spent all of History of Magic debating it. They're like a soft brown color, but with a sparkly golden-green tint, right around his pupils, when the light hits them. Sooo amazing. I'm pretty sure this isn't the type of thing you think about in a purely platonic relationship, but that's okay. Whatever's going on, I'll just suppress it. That's healthy, right?_

_-Lily_

"MOONY!"

Remus jerked his head out of the book on Chimaeras, and saw Sirius running towards him from the other side of the library. He looked tired and disheveled; his hair was almost as messy as James', and his eyes were red and bloodshot.

"MOONY, I NEED YOUR HELP!" he yelled, causing Madam Pince to glare at him.

Sirius was running so fast, he crashed right into Remus and both of them fell to the ground. Remus scrambled back up, grabbing Sirius' hand and helping him up as well, then he just stared at Sirius in shock. "Padfoot--"

"--I know, Moony. I look a mess."

"--You know where the library is?" Remus finished, still in shock.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I REALLY need your help, Rem."

It was a mark of how serious Sirius really was that he hadn't called Remus "Moony." He was truly in desperate need of Remus' help. Or, alternatively--

"Padfoot, I like your shoes just fine!" he said. "And that stopped being funny AGES ago."

"I'm NOT kidding, Rem. I need to find a book!"

"You…a book?" Remus said in wonder. "Is it about any form of medieval torture? Because what you did to Nott that time wasn't THAT funny."

"Yes, it was, but that's beside the point. I need to find the Muggle medical dictionary."

"Oh." So it was about Adriyana. "Well, let's check the Muggle Studies section, this way."

Sirius followed him into a small section of books in the back of the library, used for Muggle Studies. They searched for a while, and eventually, Remus pulled down a heavy book from one of the higher shelves. Not the wisest of decisions to keep it up there, probably.

"Okay, here it is, Padfoot. What do you want to look up, anyway?"

"Lily said that if we find out what kind of amnesia Agie has, we might find a way of curing it faster," he explained, shuffling through the pages of the book. "Ah! Here it is." Both boys huddled close to the book, scanning over the different types of amnesia on the page.

Remus found it first. "Here, Padfoot. She's got 'Traumatic Amnesia'."

"That doesn't sound good," Sirius said, frowning and looking at where Remus was pointing. "Let's see…caused by a blow to the head…loss of both short and long term memory…time until recovery varies by severity of injury…well, that's it, but it doesn't really help me."

"Do what Pomfrey said…just do the stuff with her that you did before she was hit."

"Well, it would be pretty awkward if I just went over and kissed her, right? She'd stop talking to me, never remember me, and I don't know if I could do that…"

"Padfoot, you're really determined about this, aren't you? I haven't seen you this concentrated on anything since you decided to become an Animagus."

"Moony, I think I'm in love…I need to get her back!" he said. "I couldn't sleep all night, I couldn't eat…well, I couldn't eat much, and I've been devoting almost all my time to curing her, but nothing's happened yet! It's driving me INSANE!" He fell to the floor in a depressed heap.

"Padfoot, it'll be okay, you just have to give it time!"

"Isn't that what I've been doing? If I wait another second, I'll explode, Moony, I'm sure of it!"

"So you really are in love, then? Hard to believe…"

Sirius nodded sadly. He wished Remus would realize this wasn't a good time to talk about it.

"So, have you told her about that blonde girl yet?"

Sirius winced. "Way to kick me when I'm down, Moony."

"Sorry, Padfoot. You really should tell her, before you tell her you love her though. Things will get worse."

"That's impossible, Rem. Things couldn't be any worse."

Lily stared thoughtfully at James from across the room. She had to face it, she liked him. It was strange, how he could be both incredibly endearing and overwhelmingly infuriating at the same time. The boy was a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a Gryffindor tie.

Which looked great with his eyes, by the way.

"Isn't there something that could take my mind off him?" Lily whispered.

"Sorry, what?" Adriyana said, looking up from the chess game she and Amber were playing. Amber was winning, because Adriyana just re-learned how to play.

"Nothing…I'm going to go to the…place…now," Lily said, before bolting out the door, with no real destination. Of course, after what happened to Adriyana, Lily always subconsciously went up random staircases instead of down them whenever she wandered around. Well, maybe she would find something to take her mind off James.

"Oof!" Lily called, as she ran into something—or someone, whoever it was had been carrying books—hard. The books they were carrying went flying about the hall. Lily blushed and scrambled to help whoever it was pick them up.

"Lily Evans? What are you doing by Ravenclaw Tower?" the person she had run into said. They had a male voice, deep and throaty.

"Oh, just…I don't know, really." She looked down, blushing. The only thing she knew about Ravenclaw Tower was that it was VERY far from Gryffindor Tower. Great.

Someone was holding their hand out to her. She took it. Well, whoever it was had a really strong grip. She was pulled up so that she was staring into warm, rich brown eyes…they looked kind of like James'…except it couldn't be James, right? He was back in the common room.

"I'm Jeremy. Jeremy Howes," he said.

She imagined her face being a similar color to her hair. "O-oh. Hey. Weren't you in the Hospital Wing a few weeks ago? I saw you there with Adriyana," she said all in one breath.

"Oh, yeah. Got hit with a Bludger at Quidditch practice….hey, let me walk you back to Gryffindor Tower?"

"Sure!" she said, a little over-enthusiastically. She looked up at him, only to see that he was looking back, grinning.

Looks like "something" just came her way…

"Wormtail, let's go get some food from the kitchens. Maybe there's still some of those éclairs from dessert left…and maybe they have fudge!" James tried to persuade Peter, but it wasn't even necessary…after all, Peter's two favorite things were James and food. He led Peter through the common room, and they both climbed out of the portrait hole, and started heading towards the kitchens.

That's when he saw them. Lily and…and that Ravenclaw guy who'd taken a Bludger to the chest during one of his Quidditch practices, walking down the hallway, talking…laughing…together. Who the hell did that prat think he was, to be talking to his Lily like that!?

_Your Lily…you keep thinking that..._

"Wormtail, who's that guy?" James said, glaring at Jeremy.

"Oh…Jeremy, right?" Peter squeaked.

"Jeremy…he's on The List, Pete." This 'List' was Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, And Prongs' List of Potential Prank Victims. One place you didn't want to be was on The List. It was like being marked for death.

Peter clapped his hands enthusiastically. "I LOVE it when people are on The List…what should we do to this one?"

Adriyana and Lily raced into Transfiguration a minute after the bell rang.

"May I ask why you ladies are so late?" a voice behind them called.

Adriyana spun around, so that she was staring right into McGonagall's dark eyes. "And you are?"

"Must we go over this EVERY day?" McGonagall said. She was less forgiving than the other teachers about Adriyana's amnesia…she hadn't yet forgiven Adriyana for what had happened at the Halloween dance months ago.

Behind McGonagall's shoulder, Amber made a finger-across-the-throat-means-you-die-now motion. Even the new, clueless Adriyana could pick up that hint. "Sorry, Ma'am." Adriyana saluted McGonagall and sat down in the nearest seat, next to Amber.

"Okay, class, stand up and begin transfiguring your desks into pigs, just like we've been practicing. You have the entire period," McGonagall said, standing up at her own desk in the front of the room.

They started working. Adriyana managed to give her desk a curly tail and re-color it a pale pink on her first few tries, but Amber's desk remained resolutely…a desk.

"Oh, I hate this!" Amber glared at the desk. Across the room, an oinking noise was heard.

"Hey...Lils made her desk oink! Remember our first Transfiguration class, when she got her match to turn into a needle on her first try?" Adriyana said, then turned her focus back to her desk. Amber gaped at her.

"You remember that?" Amber said, in shock.

"'Course I do. Lils is my best friend," she said, not taking her eyes off her pink desk. Suddenly, her face shot up. "Lily! I remember Lily!" She said the last part loudly, so that the entire room heard. Lily whirled around to see Adriyana running at her.

"Lils! I remember you!" she said, running over and wrapping Lily in a hug.

Sirius looked up from where his and James' desks-that-were-now-fully-pigs were fighting, staring at Adriyana and Lily hugging. Madam Pomfrey had said it would be kind of like this, suddenly Adriyana would remember a whole block of information, usually all relating to one person, and nothing else, and that this information would come in sporadic doses. And Lily happened to be first. He was okay with that, really. So what if she didn't deserve it one bit, so what if she'd been nothing but rotten to Adriyana that whole first week? At least Adriyana was getting better; he'd have her back soon, right?

Right?

After Transfiguration, Sirius and the other Marauders were walking to lunch. Sirius must have looked pretty downcast, because Remus smiled at him and said, "Don't worry about it, Pads. Soon enough, you'll have her back. Patience is a virtue."

"It's not a very fun virtue," Sirius grumbled, glaring at his shoes.

"You guys! Remy, Sirius, James, Peter!" an excited voice behind them called.

"Hey, Star," Remus said. She smiled at him briefly. "Agie remembers me!" Sirius dropped his books.

"Wow, pick a worse time, Carmichael," James muttered, rolling his eyes.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," James said placidly.

"Yeah…I had association through buttered rolls…remember when I lobbed one at Alice during third year?" Amber said, her blackish navy eyes darting from Marauder to Marauder.

"So then, why aren't you spending every moment that you can with her?" Sirius said, picking up the last of his books. Amber just stared at him, a blank look on her face. Remus whispered something in her ear.

"Oh, sorry, Black. I have to go…and get…makeup…on?" she said. The all just stared at her, and she stared back. Then she started tearing down the hall.

Peter watched her go, nodding. "Interesting girlfriend you've got, Moony."

"Potions should die," Sirius said, staring at another blank piece of paper that should be a Potions essay.

"Padfoot, you're smart enough to do it. Just stop complaining!" Remus said, exasperated.

"No. I hate Potions, and it should die."

"You wouldn't think that if—"

"JAMES!" an excited voice called.

"Lily?" James said, turning around excitedly. The person behind him wasn't Lily, however.

It was Adriyana, and she was grinning at him.

"You remember Prongs? Before Padfoot?" Peter said, confused. Sirius just stared at Adriyana in shock. Adriyana, whether she was completely oblivious to her boyfriend's shock or simply didn't know what to do about it, had buried her head in James' shoulder, giving him a huge bear hug.

So…what did it mean? Adriyana HAD known James for about seven years before Sirius had even met her, but could Adriyana like James more than she likes him?

No, it couldn't be. No way in hell.

Sighing, Sirius stared out the tall windows of Gryffindor Tower. The stars that hung in the sky always made him feel better…despite the fact that they were all the names of his wretched family.

He missed her. A lot. So far, everyone who Adriyana had remembered, Lily, Amber, Professor Dumbledore, James…they all had some object, or sound, or…something…that triggered a response in Adriyana's memory.

The only problem was, there was no pattern, no clue to tell him what he had to do or say.

Maybe Moony was right…maybe he had to do something he used to do for her, give her some of those roses from The Forest, or carry her books or something like that. Something he would only do for his girlfriend…or only for her.

Sirius grinned. Let Operation Perfect Boyfriend begin!

A/N- Pst! Review! All the cool kids are doing it...


	17. Operation: Perfect Boyfriend

Invisible!Disclaimer:

Also, I lose at HTML. So if you see any of that i and /i buisness in here, it's just something that should be italicized that I missed. Let me know if you see any!

_Dear Diary,_

_Wow, this is awkward. I just spent, like, two hours reading this thing and the only thing I've retained is that for some reason, I like writing in purple ink. I haven't remembered anything else, and I'm still having a hard time with names…who are Remus and Sirius? Those are some strange ones…_

_Though I must say, I hate feeling completely naïve (like my two-dots-on-the-i action?) about everything…I freaked out in History of Magic because I didn't think anyone else noticed that our teacher was dead. You know, now I can't spend time with this boyfriend I apparently have but whose name I STILL cannot recall, and now all I can do is pester Lily about why she's acting all weird and happy._

_Love,_

_Adriyana_

_------------------------------------------------_

_Diary,_

_Jeremy Howes. He's my answer. Okay, that sounds totally stupid, but HE is the way I'll finally forget about that guy I can't forget about…don't make me write it…please. At least I have Jeremy now, and I think he likes me or something…Plus, he makes me smile and laugh like nothing else…well, in Transfiguration, Agie called McGonagall "McGoogles," and I cracked up pretty hard at that…_

_McGoogles caught me and Black laughing, though. I'll tell you how my first detention goes._

_-Lily_

_--------------------------------------_

If someone were to walk into the Gryffindor sixth-year boys' dormitory at that moment, they'd probably be knocked to the ground by a madly pacing Sirius Black. Sirius liked to stalk while he was thinking, usually while planning a prank.

This time, though, it was different. This time, his plan wasn't going to land him in detention, but—hopefully—get Adriyana's memories of him back. He was still really confused over why he was one of the last people she remembered, and he was trying really hard to convince himself that it wasn't because Adriyana didn't like him as much as he liked her.

But his plans almost always worked, and boy, did he want this one to.

"Lily Evans! Hey, Lily Ev--"

Lily heard someone's voice behind her, calling her name. She stopped abruptly and turned around.

WHAM! Someone ran into her. Again. And from the looks of it, it was the same person. "Hey, Jeremy," she said, smiling warmly at him.

"Hi, Lily Evans."

She giggled. "I love that, how you say my first and last name…why, though?"

"Oh, it's a long story. My friends…you know them all?" She nodded. "Well, they have this thing…anyone in the school who's good-looking enough…well, you have to call them by their first and last name. You're lucky yours is so short…my brother, Steven, used to like your friend, Adriyana. Now he's afraid Black will kill him, but could you imagine, having to say her full name?"

She laughed. _Wait. Did he just pretty much come out and say I was cute?_

"Anyway, now it's weird to call you anything else…the stupid berks got it stuck in my head." Jeremy raked a hand through his sandy hair.

She didn't know where or how she suddenly got the nerve came to do it, but she found herself touching Jeremy's arm lightly and saying, "So, do you feel better after that Quidditch accident?"

He looked at her hand on his arm. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine…" he said, standing up straight, which made him wince a little.

"Such a man, Jeremy Howes," she said, giggling.

"You used my full name," he said. Well, he was a Ravenclaw, so she wasn't shocked he'd figured it out. "Does that mean you think I'm cute?"

She giggled…again. "Maybe." Merlin, why was she acting like this?

"Well, then, Lily Evans, can I ask you something?"

---------------------------------------------------------

Sirius walked through the halls, a bunch of red roses clasped in his hand. Where was Adriyana?

Peter walked up next to him. "What'cha up to, Padfoot?"

"Hey, Wormtail. Moony said I should give Adriyana some of these flowers. They were the reason we started going out, right?"

"Yeah…sure…that," Peter said nervously.

"She remembers you, doesn't she?" Sirius deadpanned.

"Kind of?" Peter said, his eyes darting back and forth…usually a telltale sign he was lying. "Well, she remembers my name, and that I'm Prongs' friend…but that's it, I swear!"

"I don't care, man. As long as she's getting better," Sirius said, a part of him not believing his own words.

"Looking for her, then?" Sirius nodded. "Isn't that her over there?" Peter said, pointing to where Adriyana was indeed standing, which was also dangerously close to a gang of Slytherins, and kept glancing up at them, as if daring them to come over. Well, it was good to see she was getting her personality back. The "scared of everything" Adriyana was driving him crazy.

"Hey! Adriyana!" he called to her. She looked up at him. "Got you these," he said, thrusting the flowers into her arms.

She looked down at the flowers for a while, then looked up at him. "Thanks…." she said, trailing off.

"Adriyana, you still don't remember me, do you?"

She looked at him for a while. "…No, but you seem to know me, so….you can call me Agie. My friend James…do you know him?" Sirius sighed, nodding. "He came up with that one before he could pronounce my actual name."

He smiled, having heard this story before. "So you really don't remember me, do you?"

She shook her head and held up the roses. "I've seen these somewhere before, though."

"Yeah! From your dormitory! I gave you those too!" _Ha! Now we're getting somewhere!_

"Did you now? That was nice of you," she said vaguely, then smiled, walking away.

_Or…we could be stuck in the same bloody rut we've been in for two weeks now…_

---------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey! Lily!" James called, looking over at her, talking to that…thing. Their heads were pretty close together, too. "I need to talk to you about something!"

He didn't, really…but we won't speak of this. Anything to get Lily away from a boy who wasn't him. Besides, she couldn't hear him, anyway…that blond prat was apparently saying something very interesting

He walked up to them. "I was just wondering, if you're not doing anything—" Jeremy began, but James pulled on Lily's arm, pulling her away.

"What are you doing!?" Lily said sharply through gritted teeth.

James tried to start his next sentence several different ways, all of them a failure. "I was just—I thought that—you have to—but I!" he wailed.

James knew what Jeremy was going to say, he just KNEW it. NOBODY got to ask Lily out but _him_. Lily didn't see it that way, of course, so before Jeremy could open his mouth again, James grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her away.

That's it…Jeremy Howes wasn't on the list…he WAS the list.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sirius watched Adriyana walk away, roses still in hand. "Padfoot? What're you doing?" Someone behind him said. He recognized the voice immediately.

"I'm brooding, Moony. Talk to you later."

"You know…it probably would work."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm saying you should kiss Adriyana. That's probably what's going to work…what can you lose?"

"Her trust," Sirius said instantly. "If she doesn't trust me, she'll never remember me. "Merlin. This was definitely the WORST possible time for this to happen. I mean, we had so much, and now…"

"Don't go all girly on me now, Padfoot." Remus warned.

Sirius sighed. "Yeah…I'll just ask Lily later. We have detention together."

"I told you not to laugh, didn't I?"

Sirius snorted. "…McGoogles…"

"Well, you didn't need to roll around on the floor for ten minutes like you did!" Remus said. "Would it kill you not to act like a total arse for once?"

"Yes it would! And it would all be your fault. Do you want that on your conscience, Moony?"

Remus laughed, and Sirius tried to laugh along with him, but as he watched Adriyana turn the corner (she knew the way to the common room now, thank Merlin) he realized that there was something he needed to do before he could be truly happy.

Now all he needed was the courage to do it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"POTTER! What the BLOODY HELL is wrong with you?" Lily screamed at him, her face as red as her hair, probably from the strain of holding that scream in until they got back to the common room.

What _was_ wrong with him? Now that he was facing a VERY angry Lily, he wondered why he'd even been compelled to randomly pull her away from Jeremy.

No, he knew…it was that _look _she'd been giving him….that look that was reserved only for James…well, it was in the sanctity of James' mind…but her giving that look to someone else drove him CRAZY with rage.

He could never tell her that, though, so he settled for acting like a complete dithering prat.

"Lily, I'm sorry. I know you don't believe me, but I am. I deserve whatever you're going to yell at me, so I'll just shut up and take it."

And he did. He stood there, letting Lily ream him out, not saying anything…because he agreed with every word. They just…hurt a thousand times more coming out of her mouth.

Finally, she stormed up the stairs. All he could do was sit there, thinking about what a complete idiot he was.

He was pretty sure he'd just lost the girl of his dreams forever…and it really wasn't a good feeling.

Lily stomped up to her dormitory, nearly in tears for absolutely no reason at all.

Well, she just made a complete idiot of herself in front of her crush, then verbally assaulted her _other_ crush, and now she was all alone, but that was it, really.

She pushed open the door. Hard. Unfortunately, Alice happened to be standing on the other side, getting ready to leave, and the door smacked her nose.

"OW! Wuzzat fuur?" Alice said, clutching her nose. Lily waved her hand in apology. Alice, sensing one of Lily's "episodes" coming, just ran out of the room quickly.

Lily collapsed on her bed, picking up the book on her nightstand. The book sprang open at her touch, and she picked up a quill and began to write.

_Dear Diary,_

_That's it. I'm going to die alone. I mean, I'm too much of a complete SPAZ to have a boyfriend anyway, so why bother? Relationships are too damn confusing anyway…at least I don't have amnesia._

_One thing, though. If I don't like James anymore, why did it make me feel so bloody awful to tear him up? I've been waiting for him to let me crush his ego like that for years, and now that I did do it, I just feel like a total bitch. I can't still like him, can I?_

_Damn._

_-Lily_

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------_

James sat into the common room, playing chess with Adriyana as Sirius watched them…or, more accurately, watched Adriyana, a longing look on his face (she was pretty much ignoring him, not intentionally, but more likely because she'd forgotten who he was again). Sirius had detention with Lily in a few minutes. She was still hiding upstairs, but all of them were positive that someone like Lily wouldn't miss her first detention ever.

James waited for her to come down. Hopefully she was still okay. He didn't see why she wouldn't be, but he was still concerned for her. It wasn't like her to be late for anything.

He looked up at Sirius and Adriyana, his face finally cracking a smile. He was hoping Adriyana would remember Sirius soon, and it looked like she was a little closer. They were getting on pretty well, at least, having their first real conversation in a while.

Sirius checked the clock on the wall, frowning at it. "I really wish I didn't have to go right now…I can't be late though." He got up, and James noticed he was holding Adriyana's hand. She was looking up at him, dazed, starstruck, giggly, and VERY un-Adriyana. In fact, she'd looked a lot like she had at the start of the year, when she first started liking Sirius.

At least, if she never remembered Sirius, they could start fresh. She looked like she was starting to like him again, or something like that.

"I can't wait for Lily anymore. Just tell her I'll meet her there," he said, stepping closer to the exit before finally stepping out. Adriyana gazed at the back of the portrait hole, still in her daze.

"James?"

"Yeah, Agie?" Maybe they'd finally get somewhere.

"Was Ringo Starr really just talking to us?"

Or maybe she was just getting worse.

-------------------------------------------------------------

A split-second later, they heard heavy, quick footsteps from the steps to the girls' dormitories. Lily bolted out, so fast she was practically tripping. James had an urge to run and catch her, but thought the better of it. She turned to look at them briefly before running out to her detention, but James noticed she was purposely avoiding his eyes.

Detention, for Lily, passed by in one awful blur. Not only was she thinking about how awful she'd been to James the whole time, she had to polish about fifty million trophies with the surname "Potter" on them, and about half of them were James'.

She had talked to Sirius some, and she agreed with what he'd said Remus had told him to do. He should kiss Adriyana.

It made sense, right? It really was basically the only thing he _hadn't _tried so far.

She sighed. If only a kiss would make everything better with James.

----------------------------------------------------------

That's it. Sirius was tired of waiting, tired of being the only thing missing from Adriyana's life…tired of secretly wondering if she liked it better like that. James and Lily (on separate occasions, of course) had told him about how Adriyana felt terrible that she didn't remember him. That she actually _wanted_ to remember him.

James, in an all-too-common burst of insensitivity, hadn't left out the part where she'd mistaken him for a celebrity…a Muggle celebrity he was surprised she even knew of at all…and she'd still recognized him before Sirius.

James found it hilarious. Sirius didn't.

Nevertheless, he gathered up all of the Gryffindor courage he had, and set off looking for Adriyana.

"So…you were flirting with James…just so that you could…remember him?

"Yeah," Adriyana said, nodding. "You see, when I first woke up, I sort of recognized his face…like in an 'I must have bumped into him in some shop sometime and said hi,' kind of way. Then, I don't know…my mental, amnesia-altered brain rationalized that flirting with him would help me remember him."

"Fine," Lily said. "Just…don't do it again."

"Why not?" Adriyana asked, then her face broke into a smile. "Oh, Merlin! You like James!"

"NO! No I don't! It's just…tearing Sirius apart, is all," Lily lied.

"Who?" Adriyana asked, confused.

"He's your boyfriend…the only person you DON'T recognize as of now?"

"Oh…always hanging out with James, Remus, and Peter? Gave me some flowers and this box of candy?" Adriyana waved the already half-empty box in front of Lily's face.

"Yeah…that's the one…"

"Oh, him!"

"You remember him?"

"Yeah! He's the one I can't seem to remember….but that's the only thing I know about him," Adriyana sighed. "Believe me, I feel awful…it's not like I'm losing anything by having him not remember me, but it looks like he is…and he's bloody hot, and doesn't look as hot while depressed."

Lily just squinted at her, saying nothing, but clearly displaying an "Are You Crazy?" look.

"What!? There's…a missing piece to this puzzle…and we need to find out what it is."

"Agie, it's okay, it'll happen if we just wait…" Lily said, knowing Adriyana wouldn't fall for it.

"Lils, he might be the sweetest, nicest, guy I've ever met." Lily snorted, rolling her eyes. "Well, judging by how he's been treating me, I don't know what he's usually like. In the last few days…he's given me flowers, candy, practically all of his attention…This is awful. I want to remember him more than I've wanted to remember anything so far, so how come I can't!"

"I don't know Agie, I really don't…Hey! What if—"

"Isn't that him?" Adriyana asked, pointing down the hallway. Lily looked in the direction Adriyana's finger was pointing. It was indeed, Sirius, hurtling toward them, with a determined look on his face.

He stopped right in front of them.

"Black, what are you doing?" Lily asked, but he ignored her, Stepping closer to Adriyana. He whispered something Lily couldn't hear, then put his hand on Adriyana's cheek.

"What're you playing at, Bla—"

But Sirius had already put his lips on top of Adriyana's, and Lily couldn't really think of anything to say to that.

A/N—I'm really sorry! Really, really sorry in a voice that suggests she's not very sorry at all…Okay, maybe not, but the next chapter will come really soon!

BY POPULAR REQUEST: Someone asked me to make an RPG, so...I will. You can join it, too, if the need may strike you. Whenever I get around to making it. Let me know if you want to join...fi I get enough requests, I'll make it bigger, and stuff.


	18. I’m Swearing Vendetta, Wanna Come With?

**Yeah...so I guess I might have lied about the whole "much shorter time" thing, but...I made this chapter really long (and hopefully eventful and exciting), and I promise you guys will never have to wait this long again. And the next chapter's almost finished, so it'll REALLY be up soon. **

A MONTH. Sorry!

But you're probably not even intersted in this, you just want to read (I hope you still want to read). So...enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen—I'm Swearing Vendetta, Wanna Come With?**

Sirius decided that it might have even been worth the long wait for this kiss to have it feel the way it did. Maybe he should just never pull away. Maybe--

Wait a second. _Is she kissing me back?_

He grinned, and reluctantly removed his lips from hers in order to get a good look at her face, wondering if he would see an expression of happiness or disgust.

Without taking his hands off of her face, he pulled away just an inch, staring deeply into her shining eyes...

"Hi, Agie," he breathed.

She looked up at him.

"Hey, Sirius." She smiled.

* * *

Remus sat in the library with Amber, as they attempted to do their Herbology essay. He looked up at her "So, do you want to go into Hogsmeade next weekend or do you—"

"Remus," Amber said, a weary tone to her voice. "I really don't want to talk about what we're going to do next weekend. I want to finish my essay!"

He sighed, looking at her. Was something wrong? She didn't normally act like this.

"Amber…" he sighed. "Is something wrong?"

"What's wrong is that this bloody essay is still only half-finished!" Amber growled, glaring at the essay. "Remus, you know what it's like to be smart…meanwhile, I study my arse off all bloody day…but am I as smart as Lily? Am I a Herbology whiz, like Alice? Can I hex someone like Adriyana can? No!"

Remus sighed. One of the things that bothered Amber most was that she studied the hardest of the four girls, but they were all still smarter than her. She was the one who spent every class taking notes, but still got an "Average" on almost every test. He saw the way she smiled maliciously when she did better than Adriyana on a Potions exam...

"Just calm down, Amber. You don't have to be better than your friends, you just have to be good…and I think you're better than good."

"What does that count for in real life, though, Remus!" She glared at him, and he just stared back, confused. "Nothing! What really counts is doing well on essays like this one!" She jabbed the essay in front of her with her finger.

"Why are you freaking out like this? Is it so inconceivable that we talk and write the essay at the same time?" he said.

Amber scoffed. "Isn't that what Black says to you all the time when you're reading? You don't let anyone talk to you when you read!"

"There's a difference! Reading is meant to be done alone; it demands your whole attention! Why are we writing the bloody essay together if we're not going to talk while we write?!"

Amber jumped up, picking up her books. "Fine, Remus! Have it your way!" He watched her gather her things, not trying to stop her. He concluded that he didn't even want to be with her right now if this was how she was going to act. "Bye!" she yelled angrily, storming off.

Remus just stared after her, confused and still a bit angry. "WHAT was that all about?" he muttered to himself.

He kept staring, until he felt something heating up in his back pocket. He reached inside, pulling out the piece of paper.

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_I just totally tore Remus apart. Ever since we've started….well…you know…THAT...um, and that started around Christmas…it's been pulling us apart rather than bringing us closer. It's weird really, there are times when I want to hug him and punch him at the same time…it's pretty often, really, and I know I have no reasoning behind it, but I just can't stop!_

_What's happening to me? I've never wanted to be alone before when I could be with him…what's going on?!_

_--Amber_

_

* * *

_

_Bad Things I Can Do To Jeremy Howes:_

James stared at the parchment in front of him angrily, as if daring a brilliant prank idea to appear on it. He was rather reluctant to admit it, but brainstorming wasn't nearly as fun or effective without the other Marauders, especially Sirius.

He glared at the sun, shining brightly outside the dormitory window. Stupid happy glowing ball, no reason to be so happy…

"How can I make Jeremy cry?" James wondered aloud. Still, nothing came to him.

The door to the dormitory opened, and James saw a very confused looking Remus in the doorway.

"Moony? What's wrong?" James asked.

"Nothing…good news," Remus said, though he was still frowning. "Adriyana remembers Padfoot."

"Really? That's good…something's still bothering you, though…"

"It's nothing, Prongs, really…What're you writing?"

James held up his list. "Swearing vendetta. Wanna help me out?"

Remus smiled and nodded. "Yeah…I can ask Padfoot to help too." He held up the paper. "And Wormtail is downstairs, we should get him."

"Don't bother Padfoot now…he probably won't like it." Remus nodded and rolled his eyes. "Let's go get Wormtail…"

* * *

"Agie?"

"Oh, Sirius…" she breathed. "I bet you hate me right now, but I swear I would have never chose—"

"Hate you? Why would I--oh, Agie…Merlin, you—" He broke off and then nearly jumped on her, wrapping his arms around her so tightly she nearly suffocated.

Finally, he loosened his grip, and Adriyana looked up at him urgently. "Sirius! I'm really sorry it took me so long, I—"

He effectively silenced her with another kiss. Lily, who was still standing next to them, just sighed exasperatedly and walked away, rifling through her bag for something.

Just as the kiss started to get deeper, Adriyana pushed him away, smiling. "Sirius…we're in the middle of the hallway…"

He smiled at her. "Say that first part again."

"Sirius?"

His smile grew wider. "Now, say the whole thing."

"Sirius, we're in the middle of the hallway?" she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Now…say it backwards!"

She rolled her eyes. "Sorry," he said, putting his arm around her waist as they began to walk down the hallway together, partly in silence. "Merlin, it's good to have you back…I was starting to think it would never happen."

"Sirius." She smiled at him and put her hand on his cheek. "It's going to take a lot more than a brick to the head for me to give up on you."

_Well, how about finding out that I slept with the school slut?_ Sirius thought, swallowing hard, but shaking the thought out of his head quickly.

By now they had reached the common room again, which was nearly deserted, save for a few first years who scuttled away quickly when they saw Sirius and Adriyana in the doorway.

He looked back at her, banishing every bad thought from his mind as he wrapped his arms around her, breathed in her fruity scent, and whispered. "I really missed you. You have no idea."

She smiled. "I missed you too…I just….forgot."

"Come here," he said laughing and pulling her face closer to his. Only then did all of his worries leave him, and his head was blissfully empty of all but one thing, playing over and over like a mantra:

_I've got my Agie back…_

* * *

"Oh, this is no use without Padfoot!" Remus wailed, as the other three Marauders stared at the _still_ empty list. "We need one of his brilliant plans this time…this prank has to go down in the record books."

"Prongs, you say that about EVERY prank," Remus said, rolling his eyes.

"I know, but I mean it this time!"

"what'd the bloke even DO?" Peter asked, looking curiously at James.

James' face just turned really red, and he gripped the quill he was holding so hard that it snapped.

Remus and Peter stared at each other. "Lily," they both said at the same time, nodding.

James' face just turned redder.

"Fine, then…if we've got no choice…let's go get Padfoot," Remus said with a sigh, summoning the map.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Remus said, tapping the map. "Or…at least someone is," he added, upon seeing the dot he was looking for in the common room, VERY close to another dot.

Peter looked at the map and snorted. "Don't worry, he'll be up in a second."

"What? How do you—" Remus asked, but stopped when he saw where Peter's pudgy finger was pointing. Remus' eyes widened.

Sirius and Adriyana were right by the entrance to the portrait hole…And the dot labelled "Minerva McGonagall" was about to enter the common room. An ominous air descended on the room as they watched the dot get closer and closer to their friend.

McGonagall's dot, upon entering the room, froze. "Ouch," James whispered, as a rather loud scream was heard downstairs (whether it was Adriyana or McGonagall screaming, none of them knew…whoever it was had a rather impressive set of vocal chords). They watched as Adriyana and Sirius' dots scattered away, Adriyana's running quickly up the girls' stairs and Sirius up theirs, his footsteps getting louder and louder.

The door to their dormitory opened with a bang, and Sirius marched in, somehow managing to look angry, startled, overjoyed…and rather dishevelled…at the same time.

"Oi! Padfoot! Help us?" James asked, pointing at the sheet.

Sirius grinned and sat down with them. "Who's going down this time, mates?"

James showed him the list.

Sirius looked briefly confused, but recovered quickly. "All right, but I'm a little distracted today, just to warn you…let's see what we can do."

James couldn't help but feel a surge of jealousy towards Adriyana, though he hated himself for it. He knew it wasn't her fault that Sirius had missed a prank meeting…even if it was this important. Sirius deserved to be happy, and if Adriyana made him feel that way…

Still, it was really unsettling to see Padfoot so hung up on a girl. Especially one so close to Lily.

But when Sirius suggested that instead of pranking Jeremy, they conduct an all out _sabotage_, something bad enough to make Lily never want to see his ugly face again, James decided to just brush it off, for now at least.

* * *

How could it even be _possible?_

Lily just didn't get it. Last year, she loathed James, and this year… he'd just completely humiliated her in front of her crush…well, her other crush…and she was _still_ thinking about giving him a chance. She couldn't believe it!

_Maybe he did deserve a chance, though…_

_Oh, Lily, don't even THINK about it! James will lead to nothing but trouble and heartbreak for you…_

_How do you know that?_

_Trust me, I'm you._

"Arrgh!" Lily groaned, pulling her pillow over her head.

She felt something grow hot in the pocket of her cloak, which was incidentally where she slipped her piece of paper. She pulled it out, seeing the brown writing on it.

"Amber! Remus is finally using the paper!" Lily informed her…Amber, who was sitting on her bed, reading a book and looking glum, thought Remus didn't like his gift because he never used it.

Amber just grumbled darkly from across the room. Lily thought she'd said, "I'll paper you!" But that couldn't really be considered a legitimate threat…at all. Lily looked back down at the paper.

_Lily, Prongs wants to know what you find least attractive in a guy…can you help him out?_

_Is that some of his business?_ Lily responded, feeling anger surge up in her, for some reason…

_Come on, Lils, we all need to know_.

Okay…so either all four marauders now had a thing for her (which would be rather interesting, actually…) or they needed prank advice. Did they think she was stupid? Since when did she help them with that kind of thing?

Lily tapped the paper harder than she meant to. _I'd have to go with…Black hair and glasses. Glad I could help!_

Without another glance, she tossed it to her side, flopping back down on her bed. Unfortunately, she only got a moment of peace before she heard a shrill scream from downstairs and her head jerked back up. "What was that?"

Amber just shrugged, still ignoring her. Lily knew a second later, though, when she heard heavy footsteps trudging up the stairs. Those were Adriyana's feet…despite her verging-on-short size; the girl had rather big feet.

Adriyana came into the room, and Lily burst out laughing. Adriyana looked depressed, but her lips were red and swollen and her hair was sticking up messily at odd angles, reminding Lily of a certain someone she REALLY shouldn't be thinking about.

She pushed past Lily into the bathroom, muttering something under hear breath. Lily caught, "McGonagall…reconciliation snogging…Sirius… backwards," but that was basically all she heard, and not a lot of it made sense.

Great…Now that Lily's best means of emotional support (Adriyana) was now completely mental, _nothing_ in her life made sense.

* * *

The Hogwarts clock tower chimed three in the morning.

Usually, due to Silencing Charms set in the walls of the common rooms, and the deep sleep one usually falls into at three in the morning, nobody was ever around to hear it.

But that morning, a certain two black-haired sixth year Gryffindors were.

"OW! That was my foot!"

"Shhh!"

"Foot-trodder."

"Padfoot, shut up!" James whispered.

Sirius lowered his voice to a whisper. "How do we not fit under this thing anymore?" he said, flapping the cloak draped around them for emphasis. "I think SOMEONE needs to lay off the Treacle Tart," he whispered, poking James' stomach.

James jumped on Sirius' foot again. "OW! Prick…"

"Sorry, accident," James whispered.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Let's just finish this and go back to sleep. In case you haven't noticed, it's _three am_. I didn't even know there WAS a three am until now…"

"Just pay attention! Do you want more detention?"

"Hey! That rhymed!"

James smacked Sirius, then looked down at the map in his hands. _First, get in the Ravenclaw common room._ He thought, glancing at the map again…they were close, now.

James accidentally trod on Sirius' foot again. "okay, that time it really WAS an accident!" he said, looking up at Sirius' face.

He shrugged. "Well, we barely fit under here anymore, and there's not even a chance all four of us could fit, so I guess I'll believe you. But…if it happens again, I'm going to tie you up and leave you here"

"You couldn't catch me!…Hey, that's it!" James said, pointing towards a large statue of a woman with a large bird on her shoulder. "Remus said it was guarded by a statue of Rowena Ravenclaw."

Sirius let out a low whistle. "What is it?" James asked.

"Check out that statue…Rowena Ravenclaw was hot, mate." Sirius said. James glared at him. "Fine, I know…attention at all times."

James (who, because he had incredible planning/eavesdropping skills, had secured the password to the Ravenclaw common room) whispered, _"Jiggery pokery!"_ and the statue slid to the side.

"What an odd password," Sirius mused. "Good thing their statue doesn't blather on like the Fat Lady…she's like a bloody inquisiti—mgpph!"

James covered Sirius' mouth with his hand in order to properly shut him up.

James looked around the Ravenclaw common room, which was rather gigantic and…book-filled. And boring. He stared at the room, wondering how Lily could like someone so _bland…_

"So I can't ogle the statue, but you're allowed to ogle the bookshelves?" Sirius asked, poking him again.

James shook his head, remembering why they were even there in the first place. Back to business. "Padfoot, do you reckon the boys' stairs are on the same side in here?"

"Only one way to find out!" Sirius said brightly, heading over towards the stairs. When he didn't slide back down, James followed, in what he hoped was a stealthy and catlike manner.

Sirius headed up to the sixth years' dorm, James behind him. Both of them ducked back under the Invisibility Cloak, and Sirius slowly pushed open the door.

James was right when he had said there were A LOT of Ravenclaws. There had to be at least twenty-five boys in this room alone. They scoped out the beds until they came upon one with the unmistakable shaggy blonde hair of Jeremy Howes.

Pulling off the cloak and casting Silencing Charms on themselves, James gave Sirius the order to, "mess with everything he could reach," and got to work himself.

An hour later, they could find basically nothing left to do.

Everlasting Itching powder in the underwear drawer? Check (Sirius cringed as he watched James pour in copious amounts of the stuff).

That Hair-Removal Potion of Peter's (he used it on his back, or something…not that they asked) in the shampoo? Check.

That potion they'd made in third year that turned seemingly innocent sentences rude, disgusting and/or just…weird poured in the water jug by Jeremy's bed? Check.

Trousers all enlarged by about five sizes? Yeah.

_Howes, you're going to get it for trying to take Lily,_ James thought, as he and Sirius got ready to run back to Gryffindor Tower.

* * *

But not before James threw all of Jeremy's shoes out the window, into the glistening black lake below, a wicked smile on his face, not a thought in his mind over whether or not they'd gone too far.

"It's really good to have all of you back, Agie!" Lily said enthusiastically at breakfast the next day. "I really missed the part of you that got her head stuck in her shirt every morning and fell asleep in classes."

Adriyana rolled her eyes, but she was obviously happy at all the attention she was getting, especially from Sirius, who had his arm wrapped around her waist as they sat and ate.

He did seem distracted, though…in fact, Lily noticed, all four of the Marauders' (who had asked the girls to eat with them today, though Amber was regarding Remus with indifference and Lily was (pretending to) ignore James' pleas for attention) minds seemed to be elsewhere.

Every once in a while, a Ravenclaw boy (Lily wondered how many of them there were, it seemed like an endless line of them) would come up and glare at either James or Sirius.

"All right," Adriyana said. "What did you guys do?"

"Us?" said Sirius, grinning innocently at her. "Nothing!"

Suddenly, James burst into uncontrollable laughter as angry footsteps were heard on the stone floor of the Great Hall. Lily craned her neck to see what he was laughing about, but couldn't see anything.

As the rest of the Gryffindor table caught sight of what was coming towards them, they either smiled and gave The Marauders a thumbs up, or just a confused glance. Since when did they torture anyone besides Slytherins? And what had this one ever done?

Sirius was pretending to study the inside of the jug of pumpkin juice _very_ intently when Jeremy finally arrived.

"POTTER!" Lily screamed, feeling anger flare up in her as she gave Jeremy a quick once-over. He looked up at her, and it was clear that he hadn't expected to see her there, because he immediately blushed and turned away. Lily kept staring at her crush (the blonde one…although she got the feeling that now, she didn't like James so much anymore. Maybe Jeremy was her only crush, now) with a sympathetic expression. What had happened to his hair? Random pieces seemed to be missing from it, but why would James do that? It wasn't anything a simple Hair-Regrowth charm wouldn't fix.

And why was he scratching his leg so viciously? Poor thing.

"Wow…are you okay?" Lily asked Jeremy.

He finally looked back at her. "Sure am, ugly!" he said, before clasping his hand over his mouth, shaking his head back and forth. "I didn't mean…that you're ugly…actually, I find you hideous…I mean vile…I mean…DAMMIT!"

So that's what James was getting at, was it? Make her think Jeremy was disgusted by her, so she'd go crying back to his arms?

Bloody prat.

Lily stood up, picking up Jeremy's hand. She felt him jump slightly, and heard an angry growl from where James was sitting.

"Come with me, I'll help you out." She smiled at him. "I'm pretty good at Charms, I bet I could fix…" she trailed off, waving her hand at Jeremy's hair.

He smiled at her, though he seemed like he was afraid to talk. She didn't blame him.

Lily pulled him away, shaking her hips as she walked, _daring_ James to follow her.

When he didn't, part of her couldn't help but feel disappointed.

Once she and Jeremy were out of the Great Hall and walking towards the hospital wing, she considered many things. She thought about telling him how sweet and brave she thought he was for not blowing up in James' face. She considered apologising for James. Hell, she even considered bloody _kissing_ him.

But she couldn't gather the courage or stamina to feel anything but depressed.

She had been wrong. James Potter hadn't changed, and he never would. At least not for her.

_Get over him, Lils. You've got a gorgeous guy with a HUGE crush on you hanging on your arm…and all you can think about is James, who you don't like anymore?_

_You don't still like him…right?_

_Right??_

She looked down at her feet, and couldn't help noticing Jeremy's, too.

"What happened to your shoes?"

* * *

A/N—I tried to make this one longer and more interesting…did I? I had a hard time writing Adriyana and Sirius' reconciliation, I tried not to make it too sappy, but still worth the wait. Hope you all liked it!

And I know James' prank isn't very clever, but it's not supposed to be. It's just…he's found someone new to take out all his Lily-related aggression on, and he's…kind of…too busy being angry, and upset, to be clever. Does that make sense?

Okay, I'm deciding where the story should go from here; their sixth year's almost done! Aren't you excited for the seventh! I am, LOTS of fun stuff planned….

Anyway, my point is…there's a couple ways I could go on these next few chapters, so please let me know if there's a specific character or genre or anything you'd like me to focus on!

Um…and you should go read the new, alternate chapter two (I hope I'm allowed to put in alternate chapters) when you have a chance, because absolutely everything is different (literally, it's a whooooole new chapter), I needed to take some things out so later chapters didn't get repetitive, and…well, mostly I didn't really like my old writing. So…yeah. You'll see what I mean.

Also, check out my LJ if you have the time (the link's set on my profile page). There's doodles of some of the characters and some scenes I decided not to put in the story. YOu an friend me, and I accept anonomous comments, so come...and look at it. Yeah.


	19. The Stop Hitting Yourself Hex?

Disclaimer: Am I the only person still writing these things after eighteen chapters? This isn't even a disclaimer, it more of a…vague rambling.

**Okay, the reason you're getting the early chapter is to bribe you into looking at the new RPG. Actually, it's pretty dull right now (Er...it has two members, and both of them are me. I don't know _how_ I accidentally crwated TWO usernames, but...I did). Link's in my LiveJournal, and the link to_ that_ is on my profile page. And I say this all again at the end of the chapter, maybe because I like talking to myself, maybe because I have something to talk about. Maybe both. Maybe I just wanted something to boldface. _Maybe_ you're still reading this. Who knows?**

Oh, well. On with the ficcage!

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_Guess what? I'm back! Well...I never really left, so I'm not literally back, because I was never literally gone…unless you count the time I spent in the hospital…_

_Okay, I'm not really proving to you that I'm not insane anymore, am I. Well, technically I never was insane…it's more of a metaphorical insanity…I'm just gonna…walk away now, and come back when I have something better to write._

_Okay, I'm back (shut up)! It's great, after I remembered Sirius again; everything else just…fell into place. Now my life is back to (ahem) normal, and I can focus on what was happening before the accident. I was wondering whether or not I was in love with Sirius. I'm actually still kind of scared about it, which totally isn't like me. Isn't that awful, though, how I still don't feel safe trusting him with my heart?_

_Metaphorically speaking, of course._

_Love,_

_Adriyana_

_P.S.—Wait a minute. I've got to talk to him. I just realized that there's still something very important about him I don't know._

* * *

_Dear Diary._

_I do NOT have a crush on James Potter._

_…Wow...that worked. Badly. Agie said that if I wrote that down and stared at the sentence for a bit, I'd believe it. Subliminal something or some kind of thingy. I don't know, really, all I can see is that it didn't work too well._

_And I mean ALL I CAN SEE. Never stare at a piece of paper for nearly an hour if you want to have clear vision ever again._

_-Lily _

* * *

Sirius sat at the top of the Astronomy Tower, his arms wrapped around Adriyana. He'd never really been up here during the day before. He'd only gone to midnight Astronomy classes before, but it was kind of nice, now that it was warm enough to want to go up there on yor own free will, and not spend the entire time muttering about which parts of your anatomy were freezing off.

Beside him, Adriyana sighed. "Sirius…I can't believe it…."

"What's that?"

"Well, you know it's March now…and that means we've been together for…about six months."

Wow. Had it really been that much time? "Bloody hell. I never thought any relationship I had would last that long."

She smiled. "I'm really glad it did, though," she said, grinning at him.

He nodded. He didn't mention to her that about a month of it didn't count because she'd had amnesia and they weren't exactly dating during that bit, but if it mad her happy to think it, then—

"Hey Sirius? I know this is kind of random and…well…really personal. But if our relationship's going to keep being this strong, then I think it might be important…soon." She bit her lip.

Sirius looked up at her. "What is it, Agie?"

"Um, It's actually like….well it's just…I'd tell you if I'd…" whatever it was that she was about to say, she looked really scared to say it. He just pulled her closer and smiled in what he hoped was a comforting way.

"Okay…have you ever…sleptwithanyone?" she said quickly, her face turning red.

He just stared at her, shocked at first, then confused. What should he say? Well, he obviously didn't want to lie, but…

An image popped in to his mind. He told her about what had happened last year, and she'd just get up and run, leaving him alone.

No, he couldn't stand that. He'd just got her back, for Merlin's sake! He couldn't lose her again, not now.

Of course, it was just like what usually happened with them. Once everything felt like it was back to normal, or as normal as it could be, something like this happened.

Adriyana had to be asking him for a reason, right? So…then that reason must be…well, she wouldn't ask him if she'd be happy with both answers, obviously. Clearly, one answer would make her happy and one wouldn't.

That made sense, right?

So he told her, "Yeah, I am."

Adriyana looked mildly shocked for a second, but Sirius thought that, judging by the way she was staying put, he'd given her the right answer.

It wasn't true, but it seemed to be working.

And when she shook her head, smiled happily and gave him a kiss, he felt awful…but still couldn't say he regretted it.

* * *

Lily walked down the hallway, alone, for once.

Being single and confused was definitely not fun. Why did all her friends have to have boyfriends, except for her? Well, Amber technically wasn't with Remus; she was studying in the library, but still...

Lily was just wondering why her usually lovesick friend had been avoiding her boyfriend lately, when she was distracted by a flash of shaggy hair.

She smiled, walking over to Jeremy. He'd kind of been avoiding her since what had happened the other day. "Hi, Jeremy," she said, smiling at him in what she hoped was a flirty way.

He looked at her, a little shyly. "Hi, Lily Evans. I thought you weren't talking to me."

Her eyes widened. "Why would I be doing that!?"

"Well, you're boyfriend didn't like it much last time, did he?"

"James…my boyfriend?" she asked. _He was joking…right?_

Jeremy nodded. "Sorry, I didn't really know you two were dating, but—"

"WE'RE NOT!" Lily yelled, angrily. "I wouldn't date him after doing something like," she motioned to Jeremy, and he winced. "That. I think he's just jealous, or trying to watch out for me. Or something like that."

"So, what…is he like, channelling your dad's spirit, or something?"

Lily laughed and shook her head, "I hope not." She did, too. Who thought about their father the way she sometimes thought about James? Well, how she used to think about him. Maybe.

"So…what were you doing before I bothered you?" she asked him.

"Oh, just…you know, walking. Helps me get where I'm going…you know, to places?" He said, grinning. "You're not bothering me; by the way…It's really great spending time with you…even if I do lose my shoes over it."

Lily blushed. "Yeah? I'm sorry about what happened with Potter, it's—"

"Not your fault, at all!" he finished.

"Are you sure? Because…I would've made it up to you…Maybe with some new shoes? Or a…Potions book?" She held up the textbook she was holding.

"Well…" he said, looking right into her eyes and smiling, "How about a date?"

She blushed even more, grinning. "That's what I really wanted to give you."

His eyes widened. "Really?"

She nodded. "But…since it isn't my fault...I guess I'd better not."

"Does that mean…you'd say yes if I asked you to go with me on the next Hogsmeade trip?"

Lily smiled. "I could do that."

"Will you?"

"I will," she said, nodding. "Meet you here at noon next weekend?"

"I'll be there!" he said. "But right now, I have to go."

"More walking?" she asked, still unable to wipe the grin off her face.

He nodded, and she raised her eyebrow as she watched him go.

_That was probably the most bizarre bit of flirting ever spawned,_ she thought, and ran all the way back to Gryffindor Tower with that stupid smile still on her face.

* * *

James slumped on the couch right by the fire in Gryffindor Tower, lazily twirling the Golden Snitch he'd nicked from the Quidditch supplies shed in 4th year between his fingers.

Sirius and Adriyana were sitting nearby, building a card tower out of Exploding Snap cards.

"Potter," Frank said, walking up to him from across the common room, "What is it with you and that thing? You don't even play Seeker."

James shrugged. "S'fun, mostly."

"Yeah, he can't show off nearly as well with a Quaffle," Adriyana said. James glared at her, and she ducked back behind the card tower.

"I just like it, is all. It's one of the nest things to do to entertain yourself, second only to the 'Stop Hitting Yourself Hex'."

"The WHAT?" Frank asked. Sirius and Peter smirked. _Why did they always ask?_

"You asked for it," James said, shrugging again as he pointed his wand at Frank and muttered a spell. Instantly, Frank's hand came up and he slapped himself across the face.

"Stop hitting yourself!" James, Peter, and Sirius chorused, mirth shining in their eyes.

Remus just bit his lip and buried his head deeper into his book.

Several more slaps and "stop hitting yourself"'s later, Frank yelled, "ALL RIGHT! I GET IT!" and stormed away, face red (though only half of it was because of anger).

Remus looked like he was about to inhale his book, he was hidden so far inside it, and Adriyana was about to fall into the tower, because she was laughing so hard.

"Agie!" James turned at the sound of Lily's voice, seeing the redhead running towards him—well, towards Adriyana—grinning like mad.

Lily, flustered, waited for Adriyana to stop laughing, and whispered something in Adriyana's ear. She listened for a minute, then Lily got to a point in the story that made Adriyana's mouth form an "o" shape, and she jumped up and down, clapping her hands.

"Lils, that's GREAT!" James heard Adriyana say. "Now I won't feel as guilty about spending three Hogsmeade trips in a row without you!"

Lily smiled. "I know, plus, I really like him."

Wait. WHAT did she just say? Some guy…had dared to ask Lily out? And more importantly, he possessed what ever it was Lily was looking for in a guy, because she'd said yes.

Frank, who had returned doing his Charms homework at a nearby table, looked up, and all of them started laughing again (except for Lily, who had no idea what was so funny) when they saw the bright red handprint on his face. "So tell me, Lily…who's the lucky guy?" he said, in a scarily accurate interpretation of a gossipy girl.

"Oh….it's Jeremy," Lily said, grinning.

"Yeah, he's pretty cute, plus, he's a Ravenclaw, which automatically makes him smart. And. He's nice, because he hasn't beat up James and Sirius for that thing…yet." Adriyana said, ticking off Jeremy's best qualities on his fingers. "I hereby deem him worthy of a date with Lily!" she said, giving up counting on her fingers and throwing her arms around Lily, who rolled her eyes, but still couldn't stop smiling.

James sat there in disbelief. What he'd done to Jeremy—had actually made Lily _more_ attracted to him? That was awful.

What did Howes have that he didn't?

_Um…Lily,_ James thought. _Or that other thing…that boring stuff…maturity._

James sighed sadly. _I'll bet she thought what I did to her boyfriend was REAL mature….brilliant job, James. I'll bet you've messed up your chances with Lily forever_.

And that part felt worse than Lily going mad over some other guy; because part of him knew it was true.

Wait a second. He'd waited this long, he wasn't going to give up that easily! No!

Maybe he didn't have to take away the thing Jeremy had the attracted Lily to him. Maybe…maybe he just had to get that, too.

He turned to Remus.

"Hey, Moony. Carmichael ditched you for next Hogsmeade weekend, right?"

Remus let out an annoyed sigh.

"Right. Don't worry, mate, I think you're a lot more interesting than Potions Essays…plus, I'm going to need your help."

"Why do I smell another loosely thrown together plan to woo Lily?"

"I'm serious! Peter's got detention, Sirius had plans with Agie, and you and I…are going to—"

"Stalk Howes and Lily?"

"Not 'stalk', exactly…" James sighed. "More like 'watch over', kind of."

* * *

A/N—Sorry it's so short! I've got one more important plot point/twist thing still coming up in their 6th year, and then I'm going to do the whole summer in one really long chapter. I think there'll be three before that one.

Um, I know I've said this enough, but check my LiveJournal out if you're bored. It's full of stuff from the story, like (bad) drawings of the characters and scenes I took out, but which are still good for a laugh.

Now type some stuff and then clicky on the little button! It's über fun, and you know you want to…


	20. I Was Looking For Money, Not Teen Angst

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.

**Chapter Nineteen -- I Was Looking For Money, Not Teen Angst**

_Dear Diary,_

_Why am I so nervous about my date with Jeremy? I've had a few dates before, and I've never acted like this before. I didn't even sleep much last night; I was a total wreck this morning at breakfast. Of course, Jeremy was there, smiling at me from over by the Ravenclaw table. I was so tense, I couldn't even eat that much. Merlin! What is wrong with me?_

_Actually, reluctant as I am to admit it, I know exactly what's wrong with me. I finally have a huge, girly crush on someone._

_It's not Jeremy._

_It was during breakfast, when I first noticed that I wasn't staring at Jeremy, wondering how he was acting the day of our date…Nope. I kept looking at James. It's not that same "Oh crap, maybe I like him," feeling I've been having until now, nope, it's real. Funny thing is, every time I saw him glare at Jeremy, or try to catch my eye, I got this weird little flutter in my stomach, and it wasn't entirely unpleasant. I asked Agie about it, and she says I must have eaten something funny, but she has been acting rather strangely this week, all giggly and smiley and not at all like Adriyana. It's unnerving. How can she be happy when I am clearly in distress over here?_

_Oh, goodie. My date with Jeremy's coming up in fifteen minutes. And, though I just realized he's not the guy I WANT to be dating, I know he's the one I SHOULD be dating._

_Damn. I have to like the rebel, don't I?_

_-Lily_

_

* * *

_

_Dear Diary,_

_I don't even have to write a Potions essay right now, I actually finished it a week ago. I just told Remus I did because I…well, the best way to explain it is to say that I've got something to prove to myself. Remus and I are in love right I guess I want to show myself how I don't have to totally commit to EVERYTHING to prove we're in love. At first, I worked or it, but now…it's really tiring, and love shouldn't be like that…should it?_

_That's not how my friends are acting, though. I've hidden all the poisons I could find from Lily (kidding…), I hardly ever see Alice anymore…and, cheese on a cracker, if you could only SEE what Agie is planning…well, I don't know what she's planning but it looks like something important._

_Sincerely,_

_Amber_

_

* * *

_

_Dear Diary,_

_I'm still SO scared that Sirius (with the reputation that he has) will break my heart, but it's finally happened. I've let myself fall completely in love with him._

_I'm going to tell him, too. In Hogsmeade. Today._

_Kisses,_

_Adriyana _

* * *

At first, Sirius hadn't_ really_ been bothered by lying to Adriyana, he'd felt bad, but it was just a _little white lie,_ right?

Apparently, it was a lot more important to Adriyana than it had been to him. Not the lying part, but what he'd lied about. Ever since then, Adriyana had been acting kind of…different. And a little strange. Sometimes, Sirius would look up at her, and she'd be giving him what he was pretty sure were called "bedroom eyes," or smiling, one of those smiles one gives to a person they're sharing a secret with.

Which was kind of weird, because they didn't, really.

So, when the next Hogsmeade trip approached, Sirius had fallen into the unfortunate habit of feeling wracked with guilt every five seconds.

He had no idea what would happen today, when he was spending all day with her…Peter had a date, and James and Remus were…well, they were busy too.

Sirius saw two pairs of feet coming down the girls' stairs, Sirius knew one of them was Adriyana (he could tell by the worn out, grey trainers she always wore, no matter how many pairs of new shoes she got), so the other one must be Lily.

He just kind of stood there, waiting for them while ignoring James, who was poking him in the shoulder (unseen, thanks to his Invisibility Cloak) in a very conspicuous way.

"Look at Lily, she looks really….gorgeous," James' voice whispered in his ear.

Sirius looked up. He'd always thought Lily was pretty, but she looked like she'd put a special effort into looking good today. Her coppery hair had been tied in a loose knot on top of her head, and her almond-shaped eyes seemed more radiant, probably due to some kind of new makeup thing that Sirius, being a guy, didn't know or even care to know the specifics of. So, though Sirius agreed with James, he still felt the need to roll his eyes and say, "You always say things like that, Prongs."

James ignored the jibe, focusing his attention on Remus, instead. "She spent a lot of time on her looks for him, that's a bad sign. C'mon, Remus, let's move out!"

"I've an idea…let's stay here, instead! That way, I don't have to be trapped under here all day, when it's quite obvious you haven't showered recently."

Sirius heard a muffled noise, kind of like someone pushing someone else, but covered it up quite smoothly with some loud coughing.

"Ready?" He hadn't noticed Adriyana walking up to him, but apparently, she had, because there she was.

Sirius nodded, and Adriyana twined her fingers around his, sending a nervous glance Lily's way. The redhead was walking right behind them, looking apprehensive. "Don't worry, Lils. He likes you."

At this, Sirius thought he heard another sound, this vaguely like someone either kicking, or slamming their head into a wall.

"Sirius? You seem…distracted," Adriyana said.

"What? Oh, sorry, Agie. I'm fine."

"Great. I was kind of thinking we could explore a NEW part of Hogsmeade this time, you know…if you walk past the Hog's Head a bit, there's this cliff, with a gorgeous view, really romantic, and it's great for...I don't know…confessing something to someone?"

_Shit. She knew._ It didn't look like it, though, her face still held the same smile, not the accusing glare he'd expected. In fact, she rested her head on his shoulder as they walked, and whispered, "I've got something to tell you."

He just smiled, wishing he could pull out his Beater's bat on the guilt bubbling up inside him and just enjoy the bloody moment.

* * *

Lily scratched her arm, like she always did when she was nervous, as she got closer and closer to where she was supposed to be meeting Jeremy.

_Please be there, Jeremy…don't make me look like an idiot, or I'll never stop liking James._

She smiled when she saw the back of his straggly blonde head as they got closer.

"Hi, Jeremy," she said, deciding that now that they were actually going out, she could drop the last name.

"Lily, hi!" he said, turning around. "Wow…you look great!"

"Thanks."

"What's wrong with your arm? Looks like you're trying to scratch it off."

Lily shook her head, smiling. "Er...my new perfume's kind of itchy. Nevermind that, though. Shall we go?"

He smiled back. "We shall."

There was a bit of an awkward moment, once they started walking, when Lily was wondering whether or not she was supposed to pick up his hand, or what. Agie wasn't making things any easier, either; her head nestled in Sirius shoulder, walking _right in front of them._

"So, Lily…where do you want to go?" Jeremy asked her.

She smiled at him, putting the awkwardness behind her, though now feeling very lost as she stared into the hazel eyes that always seemed to remind her of James.

"Well, I heard Honeydukes is selling sweets that shock your mouth when you suck on them…"

He grinned. "Bet I can keep one in my mouth longer than you!"

"You're _so _on!" Lily called, as he started tearing down the hall, and she followed behind, laughing and wishing she had chosen different shoes.

* * *

Main Street in Hogsmeade was so crowded that James and Remus opted to take off the Invisibility Cloak, and James tucked it into his rucksack as Remus searched around for Jeremy and Lily.

"There!" Remus called, pointing to a park bench, where Lily and Jeremy were indeed sitting, each holding a bright yellow candy.

James motioned for Remus to duck into the foliage with him, moving close enough so that they could hear what Jeremy and Lily were saying.

"Ready?" Jeremy asked.

In response, Lily popped the candy into her mouth, grinning. Well, for a second at least, until she grabbed her jaw, in pain. "Owww," she moaned, the sweet still in her mouth.

Jeremy followed suit, popping his candy in his mouth and promptly howling in pain.

"Still gonna bea'chu!" Lily said, voice muffled by the candy and the obvious state of pain she was in.

"What is he DOING to her?" James asked, glaring angrily at Jeremy.

"Actually Prongs…I think it's the candy." Remus said. "It looks like those new sweets that give you a shock. I think they're trying to see who can last the longest without spitting it out."

"Oh," James said, watching Lily smile as her eyes teared up. After about a minute, Jeremy spit out his candy, grabbing his jaw.

"Ha! Lily wins!" James whispered.

"Thanks, James. I wasn't watching," said Remus, dryly.

Lily spit out her candy immediately. "Yesss!"

"Fine, you win. What do you want?" Jeremy asked. "How about a whole bag of these?" He held up his candy, now covered in spit, as well as dirt from falling on the ground.

Lily made a face. "No. I don't want something that shows everyone I won." Her eyes glinted mischievously. "I want something that shows people that YOU lost."

Jeremy raised his eyebrows.

"Carry me on your back around Hogsmeade!" Lily said, looking as if it was the best idea she'd ever had. James sure thought it was. Oh, how he would laugh if he wasn't spying on her.

Jeremy's eyebrows went higher, but he sighed. "Fine, get on."

"Really?" She asked.

"Why not? But I get to choose where we go next!"

Lily nodded vigorously, and James smiled. He knew there was an inner child in her somewhere! The he realized that it had been Jeremy, and not him, to bring it out, and he immediately stopped smiling. Stupid Jeremy, why should he get that privilege?

"Prongs?" Remus poked him. Hard. "They're leaving…and I will too, if you don't start doing something!"

James turned, to see Jeremy walking down the street, carrying Lily on his back, and attracting quite a few onlookers.

He climbed out of the bush, shrugging off the bad feelings and pulling out the Invisibility cloak again. "C'mon, Moony, let's follow them."

* * *

Sirius had been to this part of Hogsmeade before, all gloomy alleys and seedy shops; he'd been there many times, whenever the Marauders needed an illegal or rare ingredient for a Potion they were using for a prank, this is where they found it.

One thing he'd never expected, though, was to be here with Adriyana. She'd insisted that the fastest way to get to the romantic spot she'd been going on about was through here. He'd been reluctant to go, realizing she was going to say something that was going to affect their relationship in a BIG way.

And he couldn't let her do it. Because he didn't know how long this lie was going to last, but now that he'd found out what she'd asked was really THAT important to her, he was sure that she'd know the truth soon.

And she wouldn't like him for it. IN fact, she'd _hate_ him, he was sure of it. He hoped, though, that maybe she'd hate him a little less if he didn't let her say or do anything too important, because he really loved Adriyana, even if he hadn't told her so yet. If anything important happened before he came clean, she'd never believe him, and she'd feel like an idiot…

He knew he was screwed for lying in the first place, he didn't know why he did it, but he really wished he never had.

He looked at Adriyana, who was so excited to say whatever it was that she was planning on saying that she was now walking about twenty feet ahead of him.

He sighed, feeling terrible. Then, he heard a jingling sound by his feet and looked down, seeing a haggard-looking man shaking a tatty old paper coffee cup with a handful of equally dirty coins at the bottom, causing the noise.

"Change, sir?" the man rasped, holding out the old cup.

"Change?" Sirius just sighed again. "I'm trying to, but it's harder than it looks."

* * *

Lily thought, as she sipped the Butterbeer Jeremy had bought her, that she should be having a fantastic time. Jeremy was extremely nice, clearly liked her very much, and had a great sense of humor; the person she'd been up until this year would have fallen for him in a second.

But all the "new" her could think about was how Jeremy wasn't James.

Jeremy interrupted her reverie. "Lily, what are you doing this summer?"

She smiled, realizing that while she was thinking, the two of them had lapsed into an awkward silence, and thanked Merlin she was out with a guy who was fantastic at striking up small talk. "Oh, I don't know. I haven't got anything planned yet, but I think my dad might want me to work in some shop in the Muggle town we live by, scooping ice cream or something of the like."

He nodded. "Quidditch world cup's this year. My family are all _fanatics_ so I'll be in the States a good few weeks before the thing."

_Bet James will be there, too._ Lily smiled. "Sounds like fun. It's England vs. USA this year, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, it's going to be one hell of a game. You're not going?"

"No…I would go with my friends, but Alice isn't allowed to go so far away, Amber refuses to fly on a Muggle plane, and Adriyana's on vacation all summer and can't get out of it. She's not happy."

Jeremy laughed. "All that really happens that far before the game is a lot of fighting and drinking. I'll get you some bloody teeth as a souvenir, if you want."

She rolled her eyes. " How romantic. How'd you know that's just what I've always wanted?"

He laughed harder. "Well, it's all part of my master plan to get you to like me. I let you ride on my back, buy you a drink, and offer you some stranger's teeth. It's a three-pronged attack, works every time."

Lily laughed, and tried not to let it show on her face that that the only word of that sentence she caught was "prongs."

Also, she decided that she might have finally cracked and gone insane. Why else would the air be swearing?

* * *

"What do you think, Sirius?" Adriyana asked him, as they looked over the cliff she'd been telling him about. "Pretty, huh?"

"Yeah, it sure is," he said. It was true, there was a really nice view, but it was the last thing on his mind at the moment.

In fact, all he was thinking was that he had to get away, before Adriyana did something she'd really regret doing later.

"Sirius, I've got to tell you something. I've been thinking about it a lot, too; since I recovered from the amnesia, but even more after out talk in the astronomy tower. I really think that…that I l—"

"Agie! I totally forgot! I have a detention today!" Great. More lies. "Merlin, it started half an hour ago! I'm really sorry! I have to go, NOW."

He planted a chaste kiss on her cheek, and ran off before she could stop him, leaving her standing there, a confused (and slightly desperate) look on her face.

* * *

"James. Their date's over. Can we go NOW?"

"No," James said, as if it should be obvious. "They still have to say goodbye. That's the single most important part of any date; everyone knows that."

"Fine. But don't forget, you owe me HUGE for this."

James shrugged, and turned his attention back to Lily and Jeremy.

* * *

"I had a lot of fun, Jeremy! Thanks so much!"

Just as Lily was planning to walk away, those stupid voices popped up in her head again.

_Kiss him._

_What? No! I don't kiss on the first date, ever since I saw "The Music Man!" at the high school by my house when I was twelve!_

_Fine, it's your choice. Kiss Jeremy, and you might like it...like him. Don't, and you'll start getting even more serious feelings for James. You know it'll happen if you don't, and you're alone...and he REALLY likes you. What have you got to lose?_

And at that moment, Lily realized something. That half of her brain, the one telling her to kiss Jeremy, usually had to fight to get her to listen, but it ALWAYS ended up winning.

She looked at Jeremy, who was smiling that adorably shy smile. And for once, she decided to save her brain the trouble of fighting and just listen to it. She moved in closer, closing the space between them slowly.

It was a soft, tentative kiss, but a kiss nonetheless. It wiped the smile right off Jeremy's face, but...in a good way. He was just staring at her, shocked. Then, his face broke into a smile five times bigger than the first one.

Lily felt herself smiling, too. And even more surprisingly, she realized she was smiling because she wanted to, not to convince herself of anything.

_Maybe...maybe she did like Jeremy._

* * *

Remus sighed, watching poor James' face as Lily kissed Jeremy, his friend looking more heartbroken than Remus had ever seen. A second later, James turned away, pulling Remus down the hallway behing him, and muttering dark things as soon as he was sure Lily couldn't hear. He whipped off the Invisibility Cloak so strongly that the hem of it smacked Remus in the face. James was too distracted to apologize, or even notice that it had happened.

"Prongs? I'm sorry…I know you didn't want to see that," Remus said consolingly.

"S'not your fault, Moony." He stormed off, Remus jogging to catch up, and it was only due to his wolf-enhanced senses that he heard the next part of James' sentence: "It's mine."

"How?" Remus asked.

But James kept walking, leaving Remus to shout, "Surely you don't believe in karma!" to an empty corridor.

**A/N—It took me a while to write this one, mostly because I didn't have many ideas. I'm hoping to finish off their sixth year in the next few chapters, so the next two or three might be a little shorter, but hopefully still good.**

**Don't forget to review if you liked it! I love you guys, almost as much as I loved Stick Stickly when I was younger. Ah, nostalgia.**


	21. Ixnay on the Oopidstay!

_**Chapter Twenty-One—** **Ixnay on the Oopidstay! **_

_ Dear Diary,_

_I can't believe it. I actually kissed Jeremy. And, surprisingly, I liked it. I'm a little concerned that I'm not sure if I was thinking about Jeremy or James, but I'm starting a new health routine, called: Repress Anything James Related._

_Surprisingly, it's working. And I really do like Jeremy; I'm just not sure if I like him as a friend or as more. It kind of looks like he's more than that, no matter what I think. I mean, he's not officially my boyfriend, or anything, but it looks like we're heading that way._

_-Lily_

_

* * *

_

_Dear Diary,_

_I think something's wrong with Sirius. He's been avoiding me ever since Hogsmeade, and even then he acted funny, and I'm pretty sure he blew me off._

Teen Witch _says these are all the classic signs of him cheating on me. I ripped the stupid magazine to shreds after I read it, but I still can't help but worry about it. Plus, now I can't read about which wand motions will help you lose weight. Plus, it was Lily's magazine…well, Lily's pile of shreds, now._

_Speaking of Lily, Jeremy is quite obviously infatuated with her. Poor bastard. It seems like James still has it for Lily, as well. I still don't know which one I want to win. James is my friend, and he WAS there first, but Jeremy is SO nice, he comes up to me whenever he sees that I'm really worried about something (Sirius), and he always makes me laugh._

_My head's about to explode from thinking too much (I never thought I'd say THAT), so let's end this now._

_Love,_

_Adriyana_

* * *

"…It's just weird, Lily. Ever since Hogsmeade he'll barely look at me!"

Lily nodded, not even paying attention to what Adriyana was saying. She _did_ care about her friend, she was just very, VERY preoccupied at the moment…and Adriyana had been talking about the same thing all day, anyway, so she'd heard it all before.

"So, how's it going with you and Jeremy?"

_That_ finally caught Lily's attention. Truthfully, she hadn't seen Jeremy since she'd kissed him after their Hogsmeade date, but he'd certainly made it clear that he wanted to see her again. So far, she'd gotten chocolates, flowers, and a rather strange limerick about pie, which didn't really make much sense at all, but it made Lily laugh, and truthfully, that's what she liked best about Jeremy.

"Earth to planet Lily!" Adriyana's hand was flapping around in front of her face. "Fine, just look like a spaced-out moron when Jeremy comes, he's just down that corridor, coming this way."

Lily squealed. "Agie, I don't…I'm not wearing makeup! Hide me, now!" she ducked behind Adriyana, who did her best to try and hide Lily, even thought they were standing in the middle of the corridor.

It seemed to be working, but a second later, Lily heard Jeremy's voice, calling her over.

Adriyana just looked down at her. "Did you forget how short I was?"

"Great. Now I'm makeup-free and covered in dirt!" Lily said, making a face.

"Hello, Ladies!" Jeremy slid in between the two of them, slipping an arm around Lily's shoulders. "How's stuff?"

Adriyana smiled and shrugged. "Could be better."

Lily rolled her eyes. "For the last time, he's NOT cheating on you!"

"Maybe not, but he's definitely doing something bad. Maybe I should just ask him…"

"You have fun with that!" Jeremy smiled. "Lily, you wanna go somewhere?"

"Well, we were just going to—"

"It's okay, Lils, go if you want," Adriyana said. Lily shot her a pleading look, hoping she understood. "Oh, damn, I forgot, I might need your help after all!"

"That's fine. I'll see you later, then?" Jeremy asked.

"Sure, that'll be—" Lily said, but then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a mop of messy black hair, underneath it a pair of brown eyes, shooting an envious glare in Jeremy's direction.

Sure, she knew she had a crush on James, knew she liked him more than she liked Jeremy, but right now, she'd do anything to distract anyone besides her from knowing it.

"You know what? Let's go somewhere now. I'll help you later, Agie!"

Adriyana just shrugged, heading over towards Sirius and James.

* * *

Sirius stood next to James in the corridor, too distracted to notice that his best friend was glaring at Jeremy, so he was none the wiser to the fact that anyone else was even _in_ the hallway at all.

He turned to James. "Do you think I should just tell Agie?"

James looked up nervously. "Um…Padfoot?"

"I should, right? I feel bad keeping it from her, you know, but I don't know what she'll say! I mean, I'm kind of an idiot, because now she'll be mad that I slept with Dawson AND that I've been lying about it for the last two weeks! You think she'll understand? I really hope so, because what would happen if—"

"Ixnay on the alkingtay!" James muttered.

"Let me finish, Prongs!"

"I would just shut up now, if I were you…"

"Why?"

A shaky voice answered him. "Well, you don't need to worry about my reaction, anymore."

Sirius jumped as he heard that voice, which was definitely not James'. He winced. "Agie?"

"So…that's what you've been hiding?" Adriyana asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Agie, I'm really sorry you found out this way, but—"

"See, that's what I was trying to prevent by asking you in the FIRST PLACE. What do you think I asked for? Jaw exercise?"

"Agie, can we please talk about this somewhere else?"

"What's wrong with here?" she demanded.

Sirius jerked his thumb towards James, who was shuffling his feet awkwardly, eyes fixed on the ground. Adriyana flicked her wand at him, transfiguring him into a shrub, though she was a bit distracted, so the shrub still bore James's glasses, and the leaves stuck up a bit funny in the back.

She crossed her arms, and he took it as his cue to start grovelling. "Agie, I swear, I was—"

"You STILL lied to me, Sirius. Do you know how hard it's been, with your track record, to convince myself to trust you? Well, it hasn't been easy," Adriyana said, voice getting shakier as her eyes began to cloud over. "Sirius, when a girl, ANY girl, asks you a question as important as that, you DON'T lie. Ever. I wasn't expecting you to have never gone that far, of course…but you just looked so sincere when you told me, and that's when I finally convinced myself to do it, to trust you. I just guess…maybe you're just not ready for a real relationship yet…"

"That's not true!"

"Then prove it!" she yelled.

Sirius thought of too many things to say at once, and all of them tried to come out of his mouth at the same time, so he never ended up saying anything that was even remotely coherent.

"Sirius, how can I ever trust you, knowing you can't trust me?" Adriyana asked, swiping her sleeve across her eyes.

"But Adriyana, I—"

"Don't 'but Adriyana' me! You've been leading me on for two weeks now, making me look like an idiot!"

"Agie, you don't even know how sorry I am!" he said. "Here! I'll even tell everyone, just for you. Watch!" He cupped his hands over his mouth. "EVERYONE!" he yelled, "I'm a total idiot and Adriyana is completely right, and I was wrong! She—"

He turned around, seeing Adriyana walking down the corridor, away from him. He turned around and ran after her, nearly tripping over the James-bush on his way.

"Agie, where are you going?" He grabbed her arm, whirling her around.

"Sirius." She sniffled. "You don't get it, do you? I just…can't be with someone who I don't trust, and who doesn't trust me, and you quite clearly don't. So…I guess that's it. I've got to go, now. Bye." Adriyana twisted her arm out of his grip and walked away, not glancing back at Sirius, who couldn't be feeling any worse at the moment if Adriyana had ripped his heart right out of his chest and taken it with her.

In a way, she had.

* * *

Sirius stood in the hallway alone for who knows how long, before he realized James was still just a little ways down the hall, and still looking every bit like a shrub.

He changed him back, and James gave him a sympathetic look. "I'm a stupid git, Prongs," he said, not taking his eyes off his feet. "Agie just broke up with me."

James' eyes widened. "She did? Because of that? Doesn't it seem like she's overreacting just a little?"

"Maybe she is," a new, female voice behind them said. Sirius and James turned around, now facing Lily, her hair slightly more ruffled than it had been fifteen minutes ago. James growled. "But this is exactly what she was afraid of when things started getting serious between the two of you. It was really hard for her to trust you, and once she did—"

"I screwed it all up," Sirius finished.

Lily looked at him for a minute. "I'm not supposed to be talking to you at all, you know, now that you're my best friend's ex, and I've got a long night of consoling ahead of me; I'd better go," Lily said, turning around and heading back towards Gryffindor Tower. Both Sirius and James saw the small smile on her face before she disappeared, and both wondered which one of them it was meant for.

James sighed as Lily walked way. "You and I...we're in the same boat, mate," he said.

Sirius, who right now wanted nothing more than to be alone and mope, shot James a tired glance. "Yeah, well, I think we're sinking."

* * *

"Adriyana and Sirius broke up?"

"No, she dumped him."

"Doesn't that seem like a little too much? Why'd she do it?"

"Because she's a bloody idiot. Anyone can see that Padfoot is clever, fun to be around--"

"So, why don't YOU date him, Prongs?"

"Oh, shut up, Wormtail. Anyone in their right mind could see that he's absolutely crazy for her, anyway."

"Well, it's too late for that now, isn't it?"

"No, Peter, you'll see. It's not too late. Can't you see she's just as crazy for him?"

But Sirius, who had been listening from inside his bed's curtains (the others must have thought he was asleep), didn't hear James' last sentence. He was too busy slamming his fist into the headboard as hard as he could.

He lost her. How could he have been so _stupid_?

* * *

Lily headed up to her dormitory, with her "best-friend kit," namely, a box of tissues and a whole mess of chocolate. She pushed open the door, hoping Adriyana wasn't in a "throwing heavy objects" state of mind.

She wasn't. Instead she curled into a tight, shaking ball on her bed. _You didn't have to dump him, Agie. You brought this on yourself,_ Lily thought, remembering the hollow, heartbroken look she'd seen in Sirius' eyes just moments before. _This is pretty intense. Seven months, and they're over because of this? It's crazy, but I've never understood Adriyana's mind before…_

Lily closed the door and Adriyana looked up, black mascara tracks running down her face. "Oh, Honey…" Lily said, heading over to Adriyana and wrapping her arms around her.

"Lily…I don't think I should have…I still love him..." Adriyana said, in between heavy breaths. "It's just too hard to let my guard down around him, and I can't do it if he can't trust me. I just kind of…snapped, you know? But I already miss him, Lily, what do I do?"

"Agie, you just do what you think is right," Lily whispered, smoothing Adriyana's hair with her hands.

"But that's just it! It's too damn hard! I'm completely torn! My brain says one thing, but…"

"Your heart says the opposite," Lily said, sighing. She knew that feeling all too well. She hugged Adriyana tighter. "Of course the pain isn't going to just go away like _that_ , you just ended a seven month relationship. It's going to hurt for a while, sweetie."

Adriyana sobbed harder. "He would know how to make it better, Lils. That's one of the things I loved most about him. He pretends to be an arrogant arse, but when we're alone, he's really kind of sweet."

Lily smiled. "Sweet like chocolate?" She threw her stash of the stuff onto the bed.

Adriyana managed a watery, if not slightly forced, smile. "It's not the same…but I guess it doesn't hurt."

* * *

A/N: Aww. How sad. I'm so evil, but at least this one came faster, eh?

Maybe not. Don't hate me, though. I know there's a lot of Sirius/OC in here, but the next chapter (and most of seventh year) will have a heavy Lily/James influence. And don't be too upset, okay? There's two chapters left until the summer, lots of stuff could happen…


	22. Please, Go Find a Parade and Rain on it!

_Dear Diary,_

_I can't believe the year's almost over, already. It's weird. It seems so fast, but looking back, SO much has happened. The Halloween dance, that whole amnesia thing, me and Jeremy (followed closely by the whole me liking James thing), and Sirius and Agie breaking up, even though that was only about a week ago or so._

_Yes, it has been a busy year, and everyone here is putting me under a lot of stress right now. I've got Jeremy constantly around me, and James seeming like he's constantly around me (though it could just be that I _notice _him more now), Adriyana's constant crying on my shoulder, coupled with Sirius asking how to win her back…it might be nice to get away from all that._

_Although, not much is waiting for me at home except for mosquitoes and Petunia, and that's not exactly thrilling._

_Maybe things will get better._

_Lily_

* * *

"Er…Lily?" Jeremy asked. "What are we doing?"

Lily and Jeremy were currently wedged between one of Hogwarts' many suits of armour and a cold stone wall. "We're hiding," she whispered, rolling her eyes as if it should have been obvious.

"But there's nobody in the corridor besides us. Or are we just practicing hiding in case we need to hide sometime in our futures? Because that's actually kind of weird, Lil."

"Shh!" Lily whispered, putting her hand over his mouth, and pointing back into the corridor. "Look."

Lily wondered why Jeremy hadn't seen her before, but there _was_ someone else in the corridor. It was Adriyana, actually, and she was looking at her feet with a downcast expression on her face. She walked past the suit of armour they were hiding behind, not even noticing they were there.

Lily sighed in relief, and noticed Jeremy's questioning stare. "I kind of just need some time away from her. I've been keeping her company a lot lately, but it gets depressing, because she's constantly crying or upset, and I just need some time away from her." She looked up urgently. "Does that make me a horrid friend?"

Jeremy shook his head. "Not really, Lil. It seems like she's just looking for attention, because, if you notice," he motioned towards Adriyana's disappearing figure, "she doesn't cry when she's alone, just when there's someone around to give her sympathy."

"Yeah…I-I guess," Lily said, a bit torn. What Jeremy had said was a bit harsh, even if it might be true, and she was suddenly torn between spending time with Jeremy and comforting her friend.

He noticed her stormy expression. "Hey," he said. "Did I do something wrong? Let me make it up to you, c'mon, I've got something to show you!" he said brightly.

"But…just one hour until curfew…"

"You'll get back in time, Lil. You worry too much."

She shrugged and took Jeremy's hand, as he pulled her off to who-knows-where. She'd had enough confusion and misery for one week, and she was willing to do whatever she could in order to crack a smile.

* * *

Sirius stared blankly at the blazing fire in front of him, not really taking in anything going on around him, but watching the orange flames dance back and forth, back and forth—

"Padfoot!"

Sirius jumped. "Ah…right here, Professor!" he called, raising his hand.

James stared at Sirius for a moment. "Since when had a Professor ever called you 'Padfoot'?" He sighed, then motioned to the chessboard in front of them. "Your move."

Sirius moved his Queen forward. James grinned, moving one of his pieces up as well. "Checkmate."

"Damn it," Sirius said, tonelessly, eyes back on the fire. "You beat me."

"Yes," James responded. "I know."

Sirius focused his vacant eyes back on James. "Sorry, Prongs. Don't really feel like doing much, right now, I'm still—"

But James didn't ever find out what Sirius was about to say, because at that moment, a very irate Lily stormed through the portrait hole, distracting Sirius enough that he stopped talking, and distracting James enough that, even if Sirius did keep talking, James would have never heard.

* * *

Lily plopped down angrily in one of the chairs by the fire, muttering _things_ under her breath.

"Something wrong, Evans?" A voice next to her asked. She turned around, seeing James.

"You should know, it was all your fault, kind of…" she muttered under her breath, not even loud enough for James to hear. "Well, my fault, too, and his…but it's still mostly yours."

James just cocked his head to the side. "Sorry…what was that? Didn't hear…"

Lily spoke a little louder this time. "Fight with Jeremy."

Lily almost laughed at the look on James' face, as he tried to look sympathetic, but was also trying _really_ hard to keep a huge grin on his face. "I'm very sorry about that," he said, nodding his head. "What was it about, pray tell?"

Lily's eyes flickered to Sirius' face, surprised he hadn't burst out laughing. "Er…he…was late…for…our…study date! Yeah, that's it."

_I'm a terrible liar,_ Lily thought. _But I could never tell him what really happened…_

_

* * *

_

_"So, Lil, what do you think?" Jeremy asked, waving his arm towards the huge library window, where some candles were set out, and two slices of the cake served after dinner were set. "If Pince finds out, she'll kill me, but I did good, right?" He smiled hopefully._

_"You did good."_

_He raised his eyebrows. "Want some cake?"_

_Lily laughed and sat down in front of the open window, letting the cool May night-time air blow her coppery hair off her face. She looked out the window, seeing the beech tree the Marauders so often sat under. Why, she'd seen James lounging there, just that afternoon. She sighed wistfully._

_She realized the boy next to her had said something, and was now waiting for an answer. Without thinking, she said it: "Sorry, what was that, James?"_

_Jeremy froze. "What'd you call me?"_

* * *

After that, it had only gotten worse. Jeremy kind of got the wrong idea, she _was_ wishing he was James…maybe just a bit, but it wasn't like she didn't like Jeremy at all.

From there, they got into a decent size shouting match, Jeremy yelling about how James had stolen his shoes, and Lily _still_ liked him more, and Lily screaming that she just knew too many people whose names started with J.

And now she was back in the common room, staring at the very person who'd inadvertently started her first lover's spat.

That probably wasn't the best idea, so Lily tore her eyes away, choosing the nearest distraction, Alice's copy of _A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration_; left behind that afternoon, and now sitting on the coffee table right in front of Lily.

* * *

James stared glumly at the chessboard. This game just wasn't as fun when Sirius didn't have his competitive spirit, or wasn't flinging the board across the room in frustration (which never seemed to get old).

"Wanna play again?" James asked Sirius dully.

"No."

"Gobstones, then?"

"No."

"How about the, 'who can eat the most Every-Flavour Beans in a row without making a face' game?"

A sigh. "No thanks, Prongs."

"Well, what if we—"

"I'll pass."

"Fine. I was only trying to—"

"Thanks anyway. I'm tired, gonna go to bed now," Sirius muttered vaguely, and disappeared up the stairs.

"We should get them back together, they're making the entire tower depressed," Lily said, not looking up from her book.

James smiled at Lily. "Yeah 'course." _Anything to spend time with you._ "Anything to help out a friend."

Lily studied James for a moment. James didn't do anything but stare back, guessing the expression on his face probably looked a bit like a gasping fish. He didn't move, however, and gradually, the attentive look on Lily's face turned into an annoyed glare. "...Well…what do you think we should DO, then?"

"Oh! Er…we could…" James weighed his options. He could help Sirius and Adriyana, but then he couldn't spend any more time with Lily. Or, he could stall, be around Lily a lot more, AND, as a bonus, possibly prolong her fight with Jeremy by keeping her away from him. If he did that though, Sirius would just be a boring lump of a best friend for that much longer.

Lily smiled at him. Such a beautiful smile. "We could.."

What the hell. Padfoot would understand. "Er…well…I've been doing this kind of thing for a while, planning things, I mean…you can't, er, expect to think of a plan right away." _Yes, that's it, James, you brilliant mastermind, you_. "It takes a little time to think about. So, we can…brainstorm some ideas tonight and tomorrow, right?" She nodded. "And, er, I'll meet you again tomorrow? Same time, same place?" He gestured to the couch, trying not to smile as he mentally dubbed himself _James Potter, Master of The White Lie._

"Okay," Lily said. "I'm kind of tired, anyway." She yawned. "See?"

He smiled._ Wow. It worked_. "All right. See you tomorrow, I guess." _Huh. Sounds a bit like a date. I guess this is as close as I'll ever get._ "Er, goodnight then."

Lily, already at the foot of the girls' stairs, giggled. "Bye, James." She wiggled her fingers, smiled, and the disappeared without another word.

James listened to her disappearing footprints, bemused. Lily and Jeremy must have been a big fight if she was already on the rebound. He knew she'd really been flirting with him that time, it wasn't just delusion.

He didn't think so, at least.

* * *

Adriyana woke up, looked out the window at the barely risen sun, and groaned, pulling her pillow over her head. If there was one thing worse than tossing and turning in bed for _hours_ before falling asleep, it was tossing and turning in bed for hours before falling asleep, THEN waking up four hours too early.

She looked up, noticing she'd had such a fitful few hours of sleep that her head was now where her feet should be, one of her legs dangled off the bed, and her duvet was bunched around her waist.

She rolled over, facing the cocoon of blankets that was Alice, and, because of her angle on the bed, the wall next to her headboard, which now looked strangely empty. _Oh, yeah,_ she thought. _That's where the picture from the Quidditch game used to be._

She looked up, pushing tangled waves away from her eyes, glancing at the clock on the wall._ Six in the morning! It's Saturday, for Merlin's sake! There is not ONE thing I can think of that would ever make waking up at an hour like this okay._

Adriyana tossed the pillow that had also ended up at the foot of the bed back to the top, and then climbed back up there as well, yanking the duvet up to her shoulders, waving her wand to close the curtains around her bed (How _did_ they get opened in the first place?), and closing her eyes.

Sleep didn't come. She tried everything she could think of, but eventually forced herself out of bed when she heard the ring of Lily's alarm clock, which went off every morning at seven-thirty.

"Dammit!" Adriyana yelled, stumbling out of bed and towards the mirror.

"Morning, gorgeous," she said sarcastically. She tried running her fingers through her hair, but they got caught in the knots and she winced. "My hair looks like James', almost like it's bent on world domination."

Behind her, someone laughed. "Morning, Lils," Adriyana said dully.

"Morning, Agie. Looks like you left your eyeliner on yesterday."

Adriyana shook her head. "No, I just didn't sleep." She touched the dark circles under her eyes. "I'm going to go take a shower, okay?"

Lily nodded, handing Adriyana her bathrobe and hairbrush, and giving her a tight hug.

* * *

Lily stepped down the stairs of the common room. She'd been feeling bad about making what was basically a date with James ever since breakfast, where she felt Jeremy's eyes on her during her entire meal. When she finally turned to look at him, he'd smiled and mouthed, "Sorry!"

So, she figured, she should just get her plan going now, and maybe she wouldn't even have to deal with being alone with James again.

Her eyes scanned the common room, until they landed on her target. Sirius was leaning on the wall next to the portrait hole.

She didn't know how he'd done it, but she knew Sirius could somehow get into the girls' dormitories, because she'd seen him there during the Holiday. Now that she'd convinced Amber and Alice to get out of there, all she had to do was get Sirius to go _in_.

As she got closer to Sirius, her heart beat faster, a little thrill coursing through her system. Maybe this was why the Marauders liked to prank people so much, for this rush. Of course, she was doing it to help a friend, not humiliate an enemy, so it wasn't the same thing at all.

Finally, she reached the portrait hole, and without looking directly at Sirius, she said, "She's upstairs," and kept walking, the shuffle of paper and feet behind her was her only indication that he'd heard what she said.

* * *

Several hours later, around noon, all Adriyana had managed to do was get cleaned up and dressed, and eat the blueberry muffin Lily had brought up for her. She hadn't left the dormitory at all that day, but at least now she was finally alone in it, and she sat on her bed, doing the crossword in Lily's copy of _The Daily Prophet_ that she'd "borrowed."

She wondered vaguely why she hadn't locked the door to the room. She thought the other three girls knew to leave her alone when she got like this, lest a shoe be hurled towards them.

Yet, she still heard the door creak open about five later, just after she'd found three across ("Martin Miggs"). She turned to the door. "Could you just--"

She turned around, but instead of seeing one of her roommates, who would no doubt be smiling in an unnerving way, and she didn't want them there anyway, the only thing that stood in the doorway was a gigantic, shaggy black dog.

Well, at least the dog wouldn't try to talk to her. "C'mere, Doggie." She patted her bed, beckoning the dog to sit down next to her, and he ran forward eagerly, jumping onto the bed.

She gave the strange dog a hug, cheek resting against his soft fur. The dog seemed to relax and think he was comforting her, because he jumped about a foot in the ear when she let out a sob, her voice cracking halfway through.

"Sorry, Doggie. You just...you kind of remind me of him…it's hard to explain." her voice shook. "Here, have some..." she held out a napkin full of leftover muffin to the dog.

She managed a weak laugh as the dog ate the crumbs, then licked off the ones sticking to her hands, and then she scooted up on her bed a little, knowing the dog was still there, but not acknowledging it much.

"Do you think I should forgive him, Doggie?" she asked after a while, wiping tears on her sleeve.

Silence. Of course, she hadn't expected the dog to actually say anything.

She sighed, still looking at her pillow. "One bark for yes, two for no."

"Agie?"

Adriyana jumped, and her crying ended in one loud hiccup. Tentatively, she inched the pillow down a little, looking at the place where the dog had just been.

When she saw Sirius sitting at the foot of the bed, she couldn't make words come out of her mouth, and Sirius must have mistaken her shock for anger. "Adriyana, I swear I didn't mean—"

"Where'd the dog go?" she whispered, looking around the room dazedly. "There was a dog, right? I'm not crazy?"

"Listen, Agie._ I'm_ the dog, his name is Padfoot. I'm an Animagus."

"Why?"

"Well…I can't tell you why. S'not my secret to confess, really."

"No, I mean...why'd you tell _me_?"

Sirius moved closer. "Because I trust you," he put his hands on her cheeks, wiping the remaining tears away with the pads of his thumbs. "Trust you with my deepest, darkest secret."

Adriyana slapped Sirius' hands away, not saying anything.

"See, you said that you don't think I trust you, but here's proof that I do, so I figured that, you know, we can get back together now, possibly."

Adriyana almost laughed, because she knew Sirius was completely expecting her to forgive him like that, just like every other girl at Hogwarts would.

Instead, she didn't say anything, just slipped her hand away from where Sirius' had landed on top of it.

He sounded more uncertain the next time he spoke. "I'm really sorry, Agie. I wasn't trying to hurt you, in fact, that was exactly what I was trying to prevent. Don't you think we deserve another chance?"

_Yes_.

"Say something, Agie."

When he'd waited a full minute and she still hadn't responded, he started walking to the door.

"Sirius, wait!"

His footsteps stopped. Determinedly not looking at him, Adriyana spoke again, still in the same place on her bed.

"I'm just confused."_ And scared, a little. But mostly, I just miss you._

"You can't say I don't trust you," he said, voice indicating that he was absolutely sure of himself. She gave in, looking up and meeting his eyes.

_Oh, Sirius, I'm sorry, so sorry, just don't look at me like that..._

That look caused something inside Adriyana to shatter. "Listen. Meet me at the Astronomy Tower tomorrow night. We'll talk. I promise."

Adriyana was suddenly struck with the irony of the location she'd picked, but didn't say anything.

He was quiet for a while. "Why tomorrow?"

"I need some time." _To pull myself together a bit._ "To think."

"We don't have that much time left, it's almost June," he said, walking to the door and grabbing a silvery cloak. "But…I'll be there, Agie."

And with that, he left.

* * *

Lily hadn't gone anywhere, really, when she'd left the common room, just walked in a big circle. Now, as she found herself walking back through the portrait hole, and saw Sirius with a sullen expression, folding paper airplanes and launching them into the fire, she knew it could only mean one thing.

She still had to meet with James later.

At ten o' clock that night, James walked down the dormitory stairs. The common room wasn't completely empty, but the only thing that mattered was that Sirius and Adriyana weren't there, and it looked like the coast was clear.

"James! Over here!"

Instead of the spot she usually sat, in front of the fire, Lily was on a cushy scarlet couch in a more secluded corner of the common room, waving at him rather indiscreetly.

"'Lo, Evans. How'd you do, planning-wise?" He plopped down on the couch next to her, his hand landing so close to hers he could feel the heat radiating off of it.

"I did okay, I guess." She shrugged, blushing slightly, which was adorable.

"Yeah? I don't think we need an amazingly complicated plan." _Unless it means more time with you._ "Sirius and Agie are spontaneous, right?"

She nodded.

"I was thinking we lock 'em in a closet, and put a spell on it so they can't get out unless they snog."

Lily laughed, rolling her eyes. "It's more complicated then that, James. They need to reconnect on an _emotional_ level, not just a physical one."

"You said what, now?" James asked, causing Lily to roll her eyes again.

And so the conversation progressed. About an hour later, they'd strayed away from the topic of Sirius and Adriyana altogether.

"So, I've got an Invisibility Cloak, and that's how we barely ever get caught. Or, we used to, but now we barely fit under it."

"I've hear they're really rare, I'm kind of surprised you have one," Lily said, looking into the fire.

"I could show you, if you want," James said. "Maybe…some other time?"

"Are you just trying to spend time with me, James?"

"Yes," he said. "I mean, it's nice to have someone new to tell all my stories to."

"Oh." Lily sounded kind of disappointed.

"But, also," James said, his face inching closer to Lily's, even though her head wasn't even facing his, "You're so…beautiful."

He was so close now he could smell flowery shampoo, could see the shift of the light as her head turned to his.

"You're so...beautiful."

Lily's heart skipped a beat. She knew he'd do this, somehow. That's what James was like. Once they started having a conversation, he took it as a love confession. Give him an inch, he took a mile.

And yet, she turned her head so that she was facing him, and _oh Merlin_ he was close. So close, she could see her eyes in his glasses. So close, their noses were practically touching.

Suddenly, she couldn't move, couldn't even talk...couldn't do anything.

* * *

A/N—Heh. I made this one longer! ducks hail of arrows

And I did try REALLY hard to keep Sirius IC, but I think he's kind of off on some lines in there.

Oh, and the next chapter will start _exactly_ where this one ended.

((Yes, that's **really the end**. It doesn't scroll down anymore, see? Just that REVIEW BUTTON left…))


	23. Your Inner Anguish Makes No Sense At All

**I am SO sorry this took me so long. I've had it done for a while, but I keep forgetting to put it up! It's short, but the next one's longer and will come faster. I think I say that a lot...well, I'm really sorry, at any rate. **

**I know I have a bunch of stories people are begging me to update...I'll get on it ASAP, I hope...**

* * *

Lily just sat there, frozen stiff. "Uh!" she squeaked, but that didn't do anything to help her situation, just caused her lips to widen more.

Crap. If James didn't know she'd liked him before this, he sure as hell knew now. He could probably hear her heartbeat, loud and fast as it was. It was all she could hear, at least, the unsteady thumpthumpthumpthump doing absolutely nothing to calm her enough to be able to move away.

She wasn't sure how long they sat like that. She knew she should stop, but she just couldn't make herself move. Suddenly, she felt James' breath more heavily on her face, in a way that wasn't entirely unpleasant. If she'd been in her right mind she'd have noticed that the cheeky git had eaten breath mints recently. Then, she heard his deep voice. "Lily?"

"Yes, James?" she said, her voice whispered and breathy.

"You have something in your hair." She felt fingers brushing through her hair, and James pulled back, handing her a piece of paper.

Suddenly, the air around her felt colder, more lonely. It no longer smelled of James, of butterbeer and manly soap and his favourite cinnamon muffins.

"Something wrong?" he asked her.

"No, nothing at all." She noticed how far away he was now; his hand was a full meter away, at least. She longed to reach out and grab it.

"Okay…I think I've got some pretty good ideas. What do you think of these—"

Lily stopped listening after that. She nodded or gave James a brief "Yeah," whenever he looked at her, but she was still abnormally distant, lost in thoughts that really shouldn't be thought of at all.

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_I don't think James even noticed how close we were. I don't think the fact that I almost KISSED a boy who isn't my boyfriend, a boy who's liked me despite my obvious loathing of him for years, even registered with him._

_Even worse (possibly), I think I was actually considering breaking up with Jeremy for a while after it happened. But he's SO sweet, and what am I going to do? Dump Jeremy, then beg for the affection of the very same James Potter I've been trying to push away for three years? THREE YEARS!_

_And I want to change my mind just like that?_

_Why is it that, whenever I'm around James Potter, I lose all control?_

_-Lily_

_

* * *

_

_Dear Diary,_

_I'm meeting Sirius in the Astronomy Tower tomorrow night. Well, tonight, I suppose, since it's past midnight. Anyway, I don't know what to do. I REALLY just want to forgive him, and hope everything goes back to normal. I just don't know if I can do it. He does seem to trust me, especially after yesterday. And I know he really didn't mean to hurt me, he's just a little spontaneous sometimes, doesn't think of the long term effects of some of the things he does. I can deal with that, I guess._

_But I still can't make a decision. At least, not without seeing him first._

_Love (A very confused),_

_Adriyana_

* * *

The next morning, Remus was awoken by a loud BANG! at the foot of his bed. He rubbed his eyes and pulled open the curtains, squinting in the bright light.

"Padfoot, what are you doing awake at the ungodly hour of," he glanced at his watch. "Eight in the morning? You're never up this early."

"Couldn't sleep," Sirius muttered vaguely. "Brain wouldn't turn the hell off." Sirius was pacing frantically around the room, stopping only to glare at Peter, who was snoring very loudly in his bed.

"Same here!" an annoyed voice from James' bed called. "Can't let my guard down. Almost kissed…but she wouldn't have liked…because then…"

"James, what possessed you to think we would understand what that means? It made no discernable sense at all," Remus said. "Are you sure you're all right?'

"No. Never said I was all right in the first place."

Remus sighed, feeling a twinge of guilt of being so elated while his friends were having problems. He couldn't help it, though. For everything going wrong in one of their lives, something in his had changed for the better. Yes, things were going relatively well in the world of Remus Lupin. There was no full moon for another two and a half weeks; no prank had been pulled recently, so he wasn't constantly fretting about some teacher barging into one of his classes and locking him in the dungeon to think about what he'd done (he had no idea where THAT fear stemmed from, but now that the idea was planted in his mind, he couldn't shake it out), and all of his teachers had fallen into their typical end of the year, no-real-work-at-all routine.

Of course, this meant less work for Amber as well, and she seemed to be free of the stress and the competitiveness she'd suffered from around March and April. Now she was back to the old, affectionate Amber, and he was perfectly content to do what she did, pretend there'd never been any rough patch between them at all, and that they'd never acted any way besides this.

It wasn't the best strategy, but the last thing Remus Lupin needed was more problems.

"Okay. I'm going to go downstairs now. Are you two—" He decided to drop it there. "Never mind."

He left the dormitory, where Sirius was still pacing back and forth, and a sound like someone's head hitting the wall was emanating from James' bed, and reached the common room.

Amber jumped up from where she was sitting on the bottom of the girls' stairs, and practically skipped over to him.

"My friends are all being useless," she pouted.

"What's wrong?" he asked, wrapping an arm around her neck.

"Well, Adriyana keeps staring at the clock, I don't know what's going on with Lily, and Alice is with Frank, 'Making the most of the little time they have left together'."

"Aah. I see," he said, nodding. "Well, I seem to have a similar problem." He kissed her cheek. "So, where to?"

* * *

Lily was unable to focus on anything all day. She wasn't even sure what had happened with James last night, or what she wanted to happen. He'd tried to kiss her at first, hadn't he? He'd even told her she was beautiful! And then, it was almost like he didn't even notice they were about to kiss at all. Just pulled that sodding piece of paper out of her hair and acted like nothing had happened!

"Lily?" Adriyana asked, walking up to where she was sitting.

"Yes?" The only upside to being lost and confused as she was, was that she had someone with her who felt the same way. She and Agie had decided to hole up in the bathtub all day, with as many pillows and blankets as they could find, twelve magazines, and two boxes of chocolate-chip cookies. At least, they'd been in the bathtub for a while, until Adriyana realized she wasn't nearly ready yet, and climbed out to fix her makeup. Apparently done now, she'd taken to standing over Lily, asking if her watch was broken or something of the like every five seconds.

"Is this watch moving backwards? I seriously think it's moving backwards!" Adriyana thrust her watch in her face.

"It's not, Agie. Your watch is fine."

Adriyana shrugged. "Guess I'm just nervous."

"So…have you decided what you're going to do yet?"

Adriyana nodded. "Yes. I think so. I really just have to see him first." She walked back into the dormitory.

Lily flipped through her magazine, there wasn't really anything interesting there. "LILY!"

Lily jumped. "Agie, is this about that watch again!?"

"No…an owl's here, with a letter for you."

Lily climbed out of the cocoon in the bathtub. "Who's it from?" she asked.

"I don't know, I can't recognise the owl, or the handwriting."

When she got into the dormitory, she saw Adriyana, nervously running her fingers through her hair. "It's almost eight though, so I'll see you around." Adriyana started walking towards the door as calmly as she could.

"Good luck," Lily said, waving as the door closed behind Adriyana.

She picked up the letter now sitting on her bed, her name untidily written on the envelope. "Why can't you be from James?" she asked the letter, because she already knew it wasn't from him. Adriyana would've recognized James' owl.

She tore along the letter's seal, letting the piece of parchment inside fall onto her mattress. She picked it up curiously:

_Lily,_

_I feel kind of bad about how things ended between us the other night. I think I might've overreacted a little bit. I'm not typically a jealous person, I swear._

Oh, right. She'd also got into a fight with Jeremy, which she'd completely forgotten about.

_I guess everything's okay between us, right? It was an accident, after all. At least, that's what you said. I was trying to talk to you about it all today, but couldn't find you anywhere. I guess I don't have time to meet you, but write back, all right?_

_-Jeremy_

Lily smiled. "Well, that's sweet," she said aloud, then started searching for some paper to write him back with. A folded piece of parchment on the floor caught her attention, and she picked it up.

She laid the slip of parchment over a textbook on her bed and poised her quill to write. But she noticed there was already something written on it. Lily's eyes scanned over it quickly, freezing on one line for a while. Her eyes widened.

It was a letter from Sirius to Agie. A letter from Sirius saying that he _loved_ Agie, who obviously hadn't read it yet, because she'd be acting completely different. She'd have been all over Sirius if she knew he'd said he loved her.

Lily dropped the note on Adriyana's bed, wondering if the fact that she hadn't read it would affect what happened between her and Sirius at all.

* * *

Sirius sat against the stone of the Astronomy tower, trying to create a barrier against the cool, night-time breeze. Where was Adriyana?

He checked his watch. 8:03. Well, it's not like she was late, but he really wanted to get the hell out of there. Sure, he REALLY wanted this to go right, but this whole argument just seemed really dumb to him, and why the hell did she have to pick here, of all places? He just hoped this would end as fast as possible so that things could go back to normal.

That's why he'd sent that letter; he'd said a lot of stuff beforehand, and hopefully things would go faster. He was still a little worried about what she'd say about some of the stuff in it, though…

He heard the tower's door open. "Hello?" he turned around.

"Hi, Sirius." Adriyana shivered. "I didn't know it would be this cold up here."

"Mostly the wind, I think." Why are we talking about the weather? "Why'd you want us to meet here, anyways?"

She sat down next to him. "I don't know, exactly. First thing that came to my head. When I think 'snogging,' the first thing that pops up is 'Astronomy Tower,' I guess."

Sirius raised one eyebrow. "You were thinking 'snogging,' then?"

Adriyana blushed. "I…maybe a little, kind of."

Sirius smiled, and another gust of wind blew around the tower. That was the only sound there was for a while, as each of them sat in awkward silence and waited for the other to say something.

Adriyana took a deep breath, and Sirius turned to look at her. "I'm really, REALLY sorry, Sirius. Whatever happened…oh, it's so confusing now, but I shouldn't have acted like that. I know I overreacted, and I would have done this earlier, the apologising bit. I just thought that if I came running back to you right away, you'd think I was a doormat or something, that I couldn't stand up for myself. But I really do regret it, just so you know, and I guess you think I'm a bit psychotic and mad, and I guess I'd understand if you didn't forgive me." She looked at her feet.

"But…I already told you I forgave you, remember? What, you didn't believe I meant all that stuff? Because I did." He sighed. "I really do love you."

Adriyana's eyes widened. "When was this?"

"In that letter," Sirius said simply. Adriyana still looked confused.

* * *

Adriyana kept staring at Sirius. Her inside bits were torn between "What letter?" and, "He said he loves me!" She wasn't sure which one to go with, so she settled for saying, "I don't know what you're talking about, I don't remember any letter."

"But I sent it this morning. How could you not have read it?"

"It's not that I didn't read it, it's that I never got it…maybe your owl just couldn't find me." _I was, after all, hiding in the bathtub._

"That's kind of odd. At least you know what I said in it, now," he said. Adriyana smiled, and there was another long silence, though it wasn't awkward like the last one.

"So, what do we do now?" Sirius asked.

"I'd really, really like to pretend the last few weeks never happened, but I'm not sure it's the smartest thing to do." Adriyana said.

"Since when are you so rational?" Sirius asked, smiling slightly.

She shrugged. "I don't know, it just doesn't seem—" Oh, I can't do this for much longer. She tried again: "Well, there were a couple of things that happened these past weeks that I don't want to take back."

"Such as?"

"You told me you loved me." She moved closer. "I don't know exactly how long I've been wanting to hear that, but it's been a while." Closer. "I guess I just want us to be…" Closer still. Adriyana watched as Sirius' pupils dilated slightly. "Like this…" The last of the space between them closed.

The kiss was soft and hesitant, tinted with something strange, new, mysterious…Adriyana supposed this must be love.

She wasn't sure how long it was before the kiss broke, but lack of oxygen was becoming more of an issue. "Sirius?" she asked, still running her fingers through his hair.

"Yeah?" he asked, breathing slightly erratic. The tiny smile on his face reassured her that it was finally okay to trust Sirius, okay to let her resolve crumble, and okay to take what she really wanted.

"Love you, too." She rested her head on his shoulder. He picked up her hand, and twined his fingers between hers. She looked up, and watched the smile on his face widen. She smiled back, the bight, enigmatic smile she hadn't used in weeks finally showing through.

And then, finally, everything was just...perfect.

* * *

A/N: Oh God, such fluff.

Next chapter, I'm taking a break from this fluff/angst (flangst?) business. I've already started it. It'll make you crack up for sure.


	24. Summer Vacation '77, Part One

_Dear Diary,_

_As you can see, I'm trying to do something with my hands that doesn't involve pulling my hair out. Right now I'm in the Knight Bus, which is indeed a very bad place to write, but I'm writing here anyway. The Knight Bus! Sixth year's over, can you believe it? Just one left! I've never been less excited to go home, either._

_It was awful saying goodbye to everyone this year, because I won't see any of them until September (possibly). Saying goodbye to Sirius was especially hard, because I really wanted to kiss him, but Mr. Potter was RIGHT THERE to pick him up, and I've known him (Mr. P, not Sirius) since I was about four, and that would just be REALLY awkward. So he just gave me a peck on the cheek and said, "Bye, Agie," which was very much not cool. There wasn't even any "I'll miss you," or something like that._

_I have a theory that fate has never wanted me to be happy, and invented this game to make me sad, called 'Up yours, Adriyana Dumbledore,' in which I just get screwed over in as many ways as possible. It (fate) leads me on, by doing something that is good, like falling in love with Sirius, but as soon as it happens, I get shipped off to another country for about forever. Well, it's Majorca, which is kind of in Spain, I think, but it's still about a jillion miles away from home and people who speak English. And I have to stay there all summer, ALONE, because Albus is using the house for important business. Sending me there was his way of saying "Stay the hell away this summer, you'll just be a nuisance and mess stuff up." I wish I could invite someone over, but Sirius and James could invent a potion for immortality easier than they could buy plane tickets; Alice is with Frank all summer (and who wants both of THEM here together? Gross.); Amber's visiting her cousins and other Amber's-family-type-people in Denmark, and Lily's parents won't let her come without any responsible adult supervision. (Just because I exploded their blender-whatsit ONE TIME, they think I'm irresponsible! How ridiculous is that?)_

_Lily says I'm ungrateful because I get to lounge on the beach all summer while she stays in her room and rots while hiding from her demonic sister. Nice, isn't she? I suppose she has a point, though. The beach is normally lovely, just not when you're so far away from everyone you know (especially Sirius), and the only people you can talk to are overfed tourists. Plus, there is the "no flirting with half-naked blokes unless you like suffering immense guilt" factor in there now. So I will bore myself to death in the first thirty seconds, no doubt._

_Did I mention there's no Sirius?_

_Of course, that's not enough yet. I'm also going to miss the Quidditch World Cup, where I would have definitely seen strike Sirius /strike a bunch of people I know and care equally about. That's okay, though, I'll just be on the island, standing under palm trees, trying to convince a coconut to drop on me and strike me dead._

_Love,_

_Adriyana_

_

* * *

_

_Dear Diary,_

_In Dad's car now, going home. I can't believe I have to spend all summer with Petunia (and Mum and Dad, but they don't count), who is, no doubt, going to make me help plan her wedding to Vernon Dursley, who I remember as being not the kindest of people, and not exactly blessed in the looks department, either._

_I could never have imagined anything better for my dear sister._

_She will no doubt dress me in pink tulle, which does not go to well with the red hair/pasty skin combination I'm currently sporting. I'd also put money on some gigantic bow or lurid floral design._

_Strangely, I'm still happy to leave school. I'm going to miss the girls terribly, but (I feel horrible about this…) I need to get away from Jeremy. The last week of school, he wanted to spend every day together. It was unnerving. Then, he started talking about meeting me over the summer, which I would do, but he was kind of dropping not-so-subtle hints about me…spending the night there. I guess he either thinks our relationship is a lot more serious than I think it is, because we haven't even gotten past kissing, and even that I try to avoid as much as I can._

_-Lily_

* * *

"Welcome home, boys!" Mrs. Potter came bustling out of the kitchen, wrapping both James and Sirius in a hug.

"Hi, Mum."

"'Lo, Mrs. P."

"You know I got seventy-three letters from Minerva McGonagall this year saying you two got detentions?" she asked.

"So we broke last year's record?" James looked excited, and Mrs. Potter frowned disapprovingly before allowing a small smile. "Sorry, Mum."

Sirius grinned as he watched Mrs. Potter pretend to be angry with himself and James, while at the same time, it was clear that she was too overjoyed to have them back to actually punish them.

It was kind of surreal coming back to the Potters'; Sirius couldn't remember a time when he'd actually looked forward to getting off the Hogwarts Express. Up until the middle of last summer, Hogwarts had been his only real home, and, even though he was happy to leave the schoolwork behind, he'd always dread going back to 12 Grimmauld Place.

This summer was going to be different. Very different, and not just because he was finally of age. This was the last summer Sirius had before he graduated Hogwarts, and he was going to do everything possible to make it the best summer of his life.

_

* * *

_

_Agie,_

_You've probably just arrived in Majorca now, right? I hope you got there all right. I'm sorry I didn't give you a proper goodbye on the platform, but Mr. P was there, and it just felt…strange. I mean, he knew you when you still picked your nose and then ate it, so he probably doesn't want to watch you kiss his son's best friend._

_Speaking of James' dad, he is completely obsessed with Charlene. (That is my motorbike, by the way. I don't know why I named it that, but it sounds sort of awesome, right?) He was gobsmacked when we took it out of my trunk (we miniaturized it first, of course, but I still got motor oil on my favourite socks.) but about five minutes later, he was insisting on riding it. I think he's having his mid-life crisis or something, he'll be asking to get sloshed with us next._

_This summer's shaping up to be great so far, the only thing not here is you. I miss you a lot, and I really hope I see you before September. Maybe at the Cup? You can't get a ticket now, but there's got to be some way to get you one. Did you want to come? Do you want a ticket? I promise, I will move heaven and earth to get you a ticket!! You will be there even if I have to kill James and give you his ticket instead._

_Er…if you can make it, that is._

_-Sirius_

_

* * *

_

_Sirius,_

_Just got here? I barely had time to unpack my things before your owl molested me. Have you ever been on an airplane before? I hated it. Good peanuts, though. And it's still not as bad as trans-oceanic Floo and Apparition. I did that once, and I was sick everywhere and then had a headache for days. So the plane is mild in comparison. The going up part is really scary, and you can't pace around or anything, you just have to sit in your seat and be scared out of your mind. It smells awful, almost as bad as your dormitory, but not quite. Are you sure there wasn't some old cheese in there? Or maybe a rotting corpse?_

_Charlene? Why Charlene? I should be offended you didn't want to name it after me, but I'm still wondering how you thought up something like 'Charlene'. It looks okay on paper, but when you talk about Charlene, does it sound like you're saying 'Charlie?' Because that is not on, though I did have a laugh (and was also disgusted) thinking about Mr. P talking about "Riding Charlie."_

_I do not, nor did I ever, eat anything that has come out of my nose. That is revolting. It's kind of odd that that is the first thing you think of when you think of me. Do I always have my finger jammed up my nose in your mental images?_

_I miss you, too. I'd do anything to be there with you at the QWC (or be with you at all, really), even go on another airplane. I'll see what I can do, all right?_

_Love you,_

_Agie_

* * *

Lily sat on the couch in her living room and picked up the remote, flicking the television on. She was tired as all hell, when she finally got home all she wanted to do was sleep, but her mother insisted on hearing every detail about Lily's school year.

The front door opened. "I'm home!"

"So are all of us." Lily rolled her eyes. "We don't need a bloody announcement every time you walk through the door."

"Language, Lily," Mrs. Evans said dully as she walked past Lily carrying a basket of laundry.

"But all I said was—"

"Hello, Lily," Petunia interrupted, stiffly, as she walked into the living room. "I see you're back."

Lily sighed, used to this animosity between Petunia and herself. She wasn't thrilled about it, but she'd only be nice if her sister was nice back. Petunia had only said six words to her so far, but she could already tell Petunia's tone wasn't going to get any warmer all summer. "Can you, now?" Lily said in a bored tone, not taking her eyes off the television. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Petunia playing with her hair, so Lily would clearly see her engagement ring. Lily wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of getting all excited, so she continued to pretend she hadn't noticed.

Petunia got more and more huffy as Lily flipped channels idly.

"Ahem." Petunia coughed in a way too loud to be conceivable.

She stopped on _The Mary Tyler Moore Show._ "Who can turn the world on with her smile?" Lily sang along quietly, smiling as Petunia's face began to turn abnormal colours.

Petunia walked up to Lily, brandishing her ring in Lily's face. "Look!" she boasted, smiling proudly.

Lily's eyes flashed to Petunia's finger for a split second. "Don't worry, I'm sure he'll get you a diamond next year."

Petunia sputtered. "There's a diamond in here!"

Lily looked again. "Oh, sorry. I didn't notice it, probably because it's so small."

"You're just jealous."

Lily laughed. "Jealous? Of you? Not a chance. Your fiancé a fat oaf I wouldn't look twice at, he still lives with his parents, and he's insane enough to be interested in you. He barely has enough money for a ring, how's he going to support a wife and family. Still, can't see you doing any better." Lily tried not to smile as Petunia trembled with rage. "My boyfriend is ten times better then he'll ever be."

"You don't have a boyfriend!"

"And, yet again, you manage to act stupider than an old potato. How do you do it?" Lily grabbed a picture of herself and Jeremy out of her pocket, almost laughing as her sister flinched at the moving picture.

"How do I know this is your boyfriend? He could just be some guy from your awful school!"

Picture-Jeremy kissed picture-Lily right on the lips, wrapping his arm around her waist in an undeniably romantic way. "That better?"

"Augh! Vernon's coming over for dinner tonight. Just don't be too much of a FREAK!" Petunia said, then stormed into the kitchen.

"Lay off the chocolate ice cream or you'll look _awful_ in a white wedding dress!" Lily called after her.

Lily looked at the picture next to her on the couch, giving Jeremy a smile. Suddenly, he looked_ a lot_ better to her.

* * *

_Lily,_

_How's it going? I'm in Ireland now, just got here for the Cup. I know it's not for a month, but I told you my family were fanatics, plus, Dad's helping to organize the whole Portkey business. Listen, when the game ends and I come back home, do you want to meet up? I looked into it a bit, and it turns out your house is only about an hour and a half away from mine. One of us can take the Knight Bus or something, right? If you want to, I mean. I'll be back a couple weeks before school starts again, so we've got plenty of time._

_Let me know, okay?_

_-Jeremy_

_

* * *

_

_Jeremy,_

_I'd be happy to meet you over the summer! You should come to my house; I think my sister has a bit of a thing for you (I showed her your picture). It could have a hilarious outcome; especially if you come on a day when Vernon (her sad excuse for a fiancé) is here. He turns purple when upset…I wonder if we could make his face explode?_

_See you then!_

_Lily_

* * *

"This is a lot more fun than you make it out to be, Prongs." Sirius swung his arm in circles above his head, launching a gnome over the Potters' fence. "At Grimmauld Place, we had traps hidden underground. I don't know where they went, but they never came back out."

"That's disturbing. Andd this is fun now; definitely not when you're doing it alone. Crap!" James cursed as he launched a gnome just a bit too low and it slammed into the fence with a heavy _THUD!_

"Nice one." Sirius laughed, reaching into a hole and pulling out another wriggling gnome by its feet.

James watched as Sirius swung the gnome over his head in fast circles. "Is Agie coming to the Cup?" he asked, casually.

Sirius let go of the gnome abruptly, causing it to fly up into the air in a wide arc, coming to rest in the Potters' tall oak tree. James snorted.

"She said she'd try to come, if she could. I really hope she'll be there, but I don't think it looks too good right now."

"Boys!" Sirius and James turned, seeing Mrs. Potter's head sticking out of the kitchen window. "How _did_ you get so filthy, you're just supposed to reach into the holes, not roll around in the dirt!"

"We know, but we thought it would be cool to make two gnomes fight each other. They didn't like it much, because they started kicking dirt in our faces."

"Well, go get washed up, it's nearly three. Remus and Peter are going to get here in half an hour."

"We'll be back inside in a second, Mum, we're about done with this." James left his hand in a gnome hole a second too long. "Ow! One of those buggers bit me!"

Sirius laughed as he headed inside. "Good one, Prongs." James followed him, grumbling angrily.

"Dorea! There you are!" James, Sirius and Mrs. Potter turned, seeing an old woman hanging over their picket fence.

Mrs. Potter turned. "Can I help you, Mrs. Fischbaum?" Sirius and James bit their lips in an attempt not to laugh.

"You could start by controlling those two hooligans! For the past hour, they've been throwing potatoes over my yard! It's been causing me and Naomi much distress, I tell you!"

"Naomi?" Sirius whispered.

"Her cat. I hate that thing. It bit me twice when I was younger. With a bit of luck it'll die soon…"

"Well, it sounds like none of the, er, potatoes landed in your yard at all. I don't see how they did anything wrong. Come inside, boys…"

"You'd better keep those two well-behaved this summer or I'll call the police! And keep that black dog of yours away from Naomi!"

"…Black dog? We don't have any—"

"I call shower first, Prongs!" Sirius ran for the stairs.

"Take your shoes off, boys!" Mrs. Potter called, as James chased after Sirius.

Half an hour later, Sirius and James sat in the living room, lazily playing Gobstones in front of the fireplace.

"Ha! I got you now, Padfoot! Wait…someone's coming through!" James pointed to the fireplace, which had just erupted into emerald green flames.

The first thing to fall out was a rucksack, stuffed to bursting with what looked like large bottles. "Awesome! Looks like Wormtail raided his parent's booze cabinet! He's right, there is a lot!" Another bag, presumably full of clothing, fell out next, followed by a pudgy blonde boy. "'Lo, guys!"

"Hey, Wormtail! AUGH! Wanker…" James sputtered as Sirius won the game, and all his Gobstones spit a foul-smelling liquid at James.

Peter shook the first bag as James did a quick _Scourgify!_ "Look at this! I brought an _ungodly_ amount of Firewhiskey!"

Sirius nodded. "Excellent!" The fireplace burst into green flames again. "Pete, you might want to mo—"

Too late. A second later, Remus shot out of the fireplace, knocking Peter over like a bowling ball hitting a pin. "AHH!"

James and Sirius burst out laughing. "S-sorry. Tried to warn you…"

Remus helped Peter to his feet. "Sorry, Wormtail."

Mrs. Potter walked in. "Hello Peter, Remus," she said cheerily. "I made you four cheese sandwiches and lemonade." She raised the tray she was holding.

"Thanks, Mum." James brushed the Gobstones to the floor and put the tray on the coffee table.

"Oh, Jimmy. What will you do when you have to live on your own and clean up after yourself?" Mrs. Potter muttered, sending the Gobstones rolling back into their box with a wave of her wand.

"Mum!" James scowled at the nickname.

"Sorry, dear. Forgot you didn't like that…" Mrs. Potter walked out of the room.

Remus smiled and picked up a sandwich, sitting down on the couch with Sirius and James. Peter took a bottle of Firewhiskey out of his bag and went to pour it in the lemonade.

"Not 'et, Wormtail. 'E got plans," Sirius said thickly, half a sandwich shoved in his mouth.

"What kind of plans?" Remus asked warily.

"Well, now that we're finally of age, we can do magic at home, of course!" James said. "And I've found the perfect victim for our first, out-of-Hogwarts, full-use-of-our-magic-arsenal prank!"

Peter and Sirius cheered, and Remus managed a half-smile.

"You should be happy, Moony! There's no way we can get in trouble for this one, we're not at school!"

"But we can get in trouble with your parents, Prongs!"

James shook his head. "As long as we don't hurt anyone, there's no problem. I have the feeling my mum hates Mrs. Fishface just as Padfoot and I do."

* * *

_Star,_

_How do you like being in Denmark? You were really excited when I last saw you. I could visit you if you'd like, but I know you've got about eighty cousins there to keep you entertained already._

_I'm at James' house right now. He got upset because his neighbour, Mrs. Fischbaum, is a "bloody pompous fuck." (His words, not mine. I didn't even know that was a noun…) She is pretty awful, actually, so I'm kind of enjoying taking revenge on someone who actually deserves it without any repercussions. Mr. and Mrs. Potter don't really seem to care; I actually get the impression that they enjoy it. I think they'd put their foot down if we actually hurt anyone, but we haven't done that yet._

_She (Mrs. Fischbaum) really did her nut last night, though. She was reading a book in her parlour, and strike Padfoot /strike Sirius snuck up to the window and shot an Incendio at the fireplace. I would be pretty shocked, too, if my fireplace took it upon itself to burst into flame. Anyway, she practically had kittens, and ran and locked herself in the loo. Of course, Peter was outside THAT window, and he made a geyser of water shoot out of the toilet. Then, James and I made all the lights flicker on and off in the house. Of course, she immediately suspected us, so we had to run back to the Potter's house and climb through the window so it looked like we were there the whole time. She was shaking like mad when she realized she couldn't pin it on us._

_Miss you loads, Star. Write me back if you're not having too much fun without me…_

_Love,  
Remus_

* * *

_Remus,_

_You're right about the family thing. This house is bursting at the seams with my relatives. All of them want to talk to me about my grades, or school, or my friends. I've repeated the same speech about a million times. My cousins are fun, though. Well, my second cousin Stewart is not quite right in the head (he collects rocks that look like Marilyn Monroe. Allegedly. None of the one's he's found even look like her at all.), but the rest of them are great! It's fantastic to see them all again._

_None of my relatives know I have a boyfriend (you), except Mum, Dad, and my little sister Abby. I don't know if it's wise to introduce you when they're all here, and the only week none of them will be here is the full. So, we'll see if we can work it out. I'll ask my parents, and they'll buy you a plane ticket if we figure it out._

_No, I'll buy the ticket, Remus. I'm not letting you. And don't try to Apparate or Floo, you'll get really sick. See you soon (possibly)._

_Love,_

_Amber

* * *

_

Lily yawned widely, stretching out on her bed with a book in her hands.

The door to her room banged open. "Give me your lipstick! Now!"

"No!" Lily said, incredulously. "I wouldn't give it to you even if you asked nicely. I don't want anything that's ever touched Vernon Dursley's spit _near_ any of my things!"

Petunia gritted her teeth and made an exasperated noise, rifling through Lily's things for the lipstick herself.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"I need your lipstick! Vernon is coming in five minutes and I must look gorgeous!"

Lily laughed. "Gorgeous? At the moment, you look far from gorgeous. Maybe you'll look okay once you've fixed your hair up."

"I've already fixed my hair up!"

"You have? Oh, that's a shame…"

"HA!" Petunia found the lipstick and brought it to her mouth.

Lily pulled out her wand. "_Accio Lipstick!"_

It zoomed into Lily's hand, drawing a heavy pink line across Petunia's face. Lily Summoned the cap as well, slipping it over the top and casually sticking it in her back pocket, then turning her attention back to the book as if nothing had happened.

"You IDIOT! Now I've got to wash my face, which means I'll have to redo my foundation! That'll take forever!"

"You should try not to make your baseline so noticeable this time." Lily waved. "Bye!"

"I'm not leaving until you apolog—"

Lily flicked her wand at Petunia, casting a silent Banishing Charm that sent her sister flying out the door, and, with another flick, she shut the door and locked it.

_

* * *

Agie,_

_Vernon is more awful than I remember him being. He comes over way too often (his mum must be happy though…can you believe he still lives with her? He's got to be about twenty-six!), and I always have to talk to him. I wish my parents would let me eat dinner in my room. The way he eats is disgusting, almost as if he tries to fit as much food as he can in his mouth, then break the record next time he eats here. I lose my appetite whenever he is around. Am now very thin, though. Unlike him._

_GREAT news, though. I've quite nearly talked them into letting me come to the island with you! It sucks that I'm a legal adult in our world but not in the Muggle world, so they still control whether I can go or not. I've almost got them convinced, though. I have to call them every day, though. See if you can find one around there. Take a look around; are there any boxes about the size of a bathroom cubicle that say "telephone" on them? Like the ones in Muggle London, except probably not red. Let me know, and if there are, I'll buy a plane ticket for around August the first. I can't wait to get the hell out of here! Oh, and see you, of course. I love you, bestest pally of mine._

_So, how are things on your end (which is definitely the better end)?_

_-Lily_

_

* * *

Lily!_

_You are already very thin, you lucky sod. And he does sound horrendous. Exactly how fat are we talking, here? The my-that's-unfortunate kind of fat, or the dear-God-it's-like-the-51st-state-of-America-but-with-legs kind of fat? Poor you. I pray that your mum has never served lobster in his presence._

_Things on the island of lost souls are not good. Of course, it's gorgeous: clear sky, crystal water, sparkly white sand, etc…but fate does not want me to have a good time here. Guess what happened today. There's this white creamy stuff Muggles use instead of a Charm to block the sun…Sunscreen? Have you ever smelled it? It smells utterly fantastic, like coconuts and pineapples and yum. So, I thought it must taste really good as well. So I squirted some in my mouth, just a tiny drop of it at first. Now I know why nobody else was eating their sunscreen, it tastes like fire mixed with burning. I can still taste it, kind of, and I probably won't live until you come here._

_You know what else happened? There's this kid whose family lives in the house next to the one I'm in, and he is a kleptomaniac. Seriously. He takes stuff from all the other people on the beach and then throws it in the ocean or something. Usually it's a shovel or some sunscreen or something (though he doesn't eat it, he squirts it on the seagulls), but when he decided to steal something from me, it ended up being MY BIKINI TOP. I was lying on my stomach tanning, and I had the back unhooked so I wouldn't get those wonky lines, and he grabbed the unhooked bit and pulled, and then started tearing down the beach with it._

_I know you're asking if I chased after him. Of course I did (holding a towel, of course). It still looked pretty funny, I'll bet. Naturally, the kid gives my top to his REALLY ATTRACTIVE older brother, and he apologises for a bit and then kicks his brother for emphasis, then asks me out on a date! I try to tell him I already have a boyfriend in a dignity-at-all-times way, but the fact that I was almost naked was kind of a setback in the dignity area, I think._

_I hope things get better when you come here. It's not like they could be worse, unless Vernon Dursley decides to drop by._

_Love ya!_

_Adriyana oxoxo (o's are hugs, right? I think they look more like lips, for kissing, and the x is the arms crossed, like for hugging...but eh, what do I know? How do you pronounce that, anyway? I tried while I was on the beach and some lady walked up and asked if I was choking.)_

* * *

"Lily, dear, come in here!" Mrs. Evans called from the kitchen.

"Does it have to do with wedding planning? Because my new policy is to not help with anything besides tasting different types of cakes!"

"No, dear…just come in, it's a surprise!"

Lily put down her book and walked into the kitchen. "Yes, Mum?"

Petunia was sitting at the table, a sour look on her face. Her mum smiled cheerily as she pointed to a large box on Lily's side of the table. "Your dress for the wedding!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Fantastic."

"Open it, sweetheart!" her dad said, grinning.

Lily reluctantly walked over to the box and pulled off the lid, blinking at the nightmare of peach taffeta that she saw inside. "Hold it up to yourself, dear. I want to see if it's long enough…"

Lily grabbed the dress by its puffy sleeves and took it out. It puffed up and down through the air almost like a jellyfish, except uglier. "I am not wearing—"

A slip of paper fell out of the voluminous skirt of the dress. Lily bent down to pick it up. "I think you left the receipt here." She decided to chance a quick look at it, wondering how much was spent on such a thing, as there was probably enough material there to clothe a small nation. She brought the paper closer to her eyes, reading only the first few lines before squealing and jumping into her fathers' arms, yelling "thainkyouthankyouthankyou!! I have to go tell Agie!" She handed her father the plane ticket and went to get a pen and some paper. "I'm free!" she whisper-cheered as she ran to her room.

* * *

A/N -- I decided to split the summer into two chapters, as you can see. Still, even though it's only half what I planned, it's the longest chapter yet! Oh, and that no Floo/Apparition thing overseas has just always been a theory of mine, and I didn't find anything that contradicted it in canon. So…that's okay, right? 


	25. Summer Vacation '77, Part Two

**I know I've been slow to update lately, and I'm SO sorry. I've actually had this chapter AND the next one written for some time now, but I keep forgetting to put them on FFN. Since the next one's already written, though, It'll be on here much faster than this one...**

* * *

**Chapter 24 -- Then, Everyone Screamed Bloody-Freakin' Homicide.**

Lily waited for what seemed like forever after she got off the plane, waiting in the customs line at the airport. She hadn't moved up in the line in the longest time and she was so _tired _, even though she was sitting on top of her blue striped luggage. As if the flight wasn't long enough.

Finally, she got to the front of the line and, surprisingly enough, got through relatively quickly. Wearily, she looked around the public part of the airport. It was small, with only one terminal, a place that sold gum, a café, and a bunch of randomly placed benches. The only thing that was even remotely interesting was the tall windows, outside of which Lily could see peaceful, bright blue sky. She sighed and rubbed her neck idly as she walked.

"LILY!" someone screamed in her ear. Lily yelped as warm hands covered her eyes. "Guess who?"

Instead of answering, Lily leaned heavily against the person behind her, sending them both toppling to the ground. Once they had both stopped laughing, Lily sat up and turned around. "Hi!"

Adriyana grinned. "Get the hell off me, Lils," she said fondly.

Lily stood up, and Adriyana jumped to her feet as well. "I could kiss you for saving me, Agie. I don't think I said one nice word to Petunia all month. She just…brings out the worst in me, it's awful."

Adriyana frowned sympathetically. "I take it she hasn't improved since I met her?" Lily shook her head. "Poor you, that sucks. But let's not talk about that, you've probably had enough. Come on, I'll show you where we're staying." She picked up Lily's bag and they walked out of the airport, and as soon as they pushed open the doors, heavy, humid air swirled around Lily. She made a face and looked at Adriyana, who didn't seem to be bothered by it much.

"Damn, it's hot out here," Lily commented. "And how do we get to your…er…where do we sleep?"

"It's by the shore…owned by a hotel company, but it's a bunch of tiny little individual houses? I don't remember what it's called."

"That sounds like a condo, Agie," Lily deadpanned.

"Yeah, that's it. And we're walking. It's only about a mile, and I don't like driving if I can help it."

"Why, because someone might find out you don't have a licence?"

"Exactly."

"As if they can't tell by the way you drive. Did you learn which one's the brake pedal and which is the gas, yet?"

"Almost…er, I mean, haven't you had enough of sitting by now?"

Lily nodded, dropping her bag and using both hands to fan herself.

"Come on, Lils. It's not that hot!"

Lily scoffed. "How do you figure?" Finally taking a closer look at her friend, Lily instantly noticed why Adriyana wasn't that bothered by the weather. Her hair was damp, so she'd probably just been in the ocean, and she'd pulled it into a bun. She was wearing only a thin, white cotton dress over top of her bathing suit. Lily, on the other hand, was wearing "airplane attire," i.e., her favourite pair of comfortable, well-worn jeans and a black shirt that became burning hot in an unbelievably short amount of time.

Lily's attention faded in and out as Adriyana told her about what drinks were the best at the outdoor bar at the hotel near the condo. "You have to be twenty-one to get alcohol, isn't that weird? Did you know non-alcoholic drinks are called 'virgin' drinks? Isn't that bizarre?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Is the water nice?"

Adriyana nodded, and kept rambling on, before abruptly turning away from the main road and following a path mostly covered by thick, shady trees.

Lily sighed with relief as the heavy green leaves blocked the sun beating down on them, but couldn't help asking: "Agie, what the hell is this?"

"Shortcut," Adriyana muttered vaguely. Lily wasn't very consoled by that, but a few minutes later, a wider path crossed directly on top of theirs, and Adriyana turned onto it abruptly. As the leaves became more sparse, the backs of tiny, cream-coloured houses began appearing on the side of the path, facing out to what Lily assumed was the beach.

Adriyana stopped in front of one of the houses, pulling a rusting key out of her bun. "This is it," she said unnecessarily. She pushed on the door and it swung forward. "Come on in, I'll help you unpack your stuff."

* * *

Even as James left the stadium and he, his dad, and the rest of the Marauders were heading back to their tent, his ears were still ringing from the thrilling end to the Quidditch Cup, where England's Seeker had grabbed the Snitch from right under the Irish Seeker's foot and everyone had screamed bloody-freakin' homicide. He had to strain his abused ears to hear the snippets of conversation going on around him: 

"—Did you see that last goal? Bloody amazing, even though they lost—"

"—Think I won the office pool, I said two hours and fifteen, it was only about twenty longer than that, no one else was even close—"

"—Knew we'd win, Ireland didn't stand a chance!—"

"—Almost fell off his broom three times, didn't he? Barely caught himself on that last one—"

James' dad ducked under the flap of their tent, followed by the other boys with James bringing up the rear. The heavy canvas cut out all the noises outside the tent, so he had to listen to what Sirius and Peter were talking about instead.

"—Can't BELIEVE Snivelly was sitting right below our balcony!" Sirius said loudly, flopping backwards onto the couch.

"I can't believe you dropped your ice cream on his head," James burst into laughter.

"Cracking shot that was, Padfoot," Peter added.

Sirius grinned with pride. "Now we'll be able to tell if he actually washes his hair, eh? I bet ten Galleons they'll still be ice cream in it when we get back to school."

James looked to the right, because Remus had been too silent. "Isn't summer great, Moony? We can't get in trouble for our pranks at all!"

Remus sighed. "We can, though. Amber told Adriyana and Lily about Mrs. Fischbaum. I got a letter from them just this morning. They're not happy, to say the least."

"About what?" James asked. "How could they possibly have a problem with that?"

"Here, I'll get it." Remus pulled his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at the table. "_Accio letter._ " A piece of parchment flew into his hand, and he tossed it into James' lap.

"You've been writing to Agie?" Sirius asked.

"Huh? Oh, of course I haven't, I barely know her, Padfoot. No, Lily wrote it, but Adriyana must have been yelling in the background, I think. Why don't you just read it, Prongs?"

James nodded and adjusted his glasses as Sirius leaned over his shoulder.

_Remus, and whoever might steal this letter when they realize it's from me (Potter),_

_Are you really torturing a MUGGLE?? It's the first summer you're allowed to do magic, I bet that was one of the first things you did, as well. You're supposed to be mature now! Remus, your mum's a Muggle, right? Doesn't she get jumpy when your dad does magic? And she knows about us! It has to be about thirty times worse for this poor woman. I don't care how much you guys hate her, it's still illegal. The Statue of Secrecy is the FIRST thing a wizard ever learns. Even you idiots should know that. Especially you, Remus, I'm shocked about this._

_Oh, and Agie's mad too, but she's not good at being angry in a letter, because her hand gets all shaky. She told me to write that Sirius better write her soon and he'd better start grovelling. She also says that she's going to train the giant squid to squirt ink at you four because you made me mad again, and I'd just barely recovered from spending half the summer with my sister._

_-Lily_

James swallowed loudly and adjusted his glasses again. "I didn't even think about it that way, but I guess --Padfoot, would you STOP breathing in my ear? You know I hate that!— they're right. It's not as bad as Lily says, though, I mean, we're not _hurting_ her at all."

Sirius nodded. "True, but we're better off letting them think we feel sorry. I've got an idea, but we'll have to wait to send them a letter until we get back to your house, Prongs."

James shrugged. "Sure. It's harder to care about what Lily says when I won't be seeing her for another four weeks."

Sirius nodded in agreement. "And Agie'll forget about it by then. Come on, every other sane person here is out there celebrating!" he pointed to the door of the tent. "What are we doing? We are here, l_istening to bloody Evans_ again, when we are supposed to be having a vacation from her."

They left the tent and James couldn't help but laugh at the spectacle outside. People were drinking and dancing and it looked like a blast. The Potter's tent was very close to the separation of the English supporters and the Irish supporters, and every once in a while someone on the other side would peek out of their shamrock-coated tent and glare angrily at the people partying, as if the look alone would stop everyone.

"You'd think they wouldn't want to stick around after losing…" Remus mused. "Can't they just apparate? They're close enough."

The other three shrugged. "Hey!" Peter exclaimed, "Since we can't prank Prongs' neighbour anymore, we should at least d_o something_ while we're still around wizards and we can't get in trouble for it…right?"

Sirius nodded. "Definitely."

James shrugged. "There's probably Security Spells around here, we can get in deep shit if something goes wrong and they need to _Priori Icantatem_ everyone."

"I've got an idea!" Peter ducked back into the tent, some crashing was heard. He emerged again moments later, holding some egg cartons. "We egg their tents. Muggle-style. No wands needed. And we can't hurt anyone!"

"Unless someone's allergic to eggshell and a bit falls in their eye and it swells up and they go blind!" James yelled.

Sirius took one of the cartons, pulled out an egg, and stuffed it in James' mouth. "Shut up now, Prongs."

James huffed angrily around his egg.

Peter picked up an egg and threw it at one of the tents experimentally. It sailed through the air, but landed a few meters short of its target with a squishy _SPLAT _on the ground.

"Watch the master at work, Wormtail." Sirius took out another egg and lazily hurled it at the tent, hitting it square in the middle. The tent lit up with what could only be a burst of wand light from inside. The flap facing them opened, and someone's wand poked out. The next thing James knew, sticky brown mud-like goo was flying out of the wand towards Sirius.

Before Sirius could step away, a great amount of the stuff splashed across his chest, which was already bare except for the paint he and James and put on to show team spirit.

"Okay, so maybe they're in a bad mood," Remus suggested, as the wand light in the tent went out. "Padfoot, go take a shower, that's really gross."

Sirius looked down at himself, and a huge glob of mud fell off his nose and landed on his shoe with a gooey PLOP noise. It made James laugh so hard he forgot the egg was still in his mouth and he bit down.

* * *

_Amber,_

_The Quidditch cup was great, we won, but I'll bet you've already heard that. James didn't realize the paint he bought for him and Sirius wasn't supposed to be used on their skin (Which they covered themselves in, the gits), so now the paint won't come off and I think Sirius is going to kill James soon, so I'd better get back to them._

_You haven't written me a letter in a while, is everything all right? How's your summer going?_

_-Remus_

* * *

"Agie." 

"Hggg…"

"Agie!!"

"Sleepin'. Go 'way."

"AGIE!! Wake the hell up. Isn't that James' owl knocking on the condo?"

Adriyana looked up from her towel, and saw James' owl trying to get through their window. "Yeah!" She jumped up excitedly.

"We're _mad _at them, you idiot. Remember? Don't be excited."

"So negative, Lily. Maybe we won't be mad at them anymore after we read it. I'd like to get lunch, too, so we should go back there, anyway."

Lily conceded and followed Adriyana, who jogged up to James' owl. "Watch it! The Muggles will see you!" she whispered to the owl harshly, pushing the door open. "Come in, before they see!" The owl seemed to understand her and followed both of them inside.

Adriyana poured some dry cereal onto a plate and pushed it towards the owl, then untied the note from its leg and plopped down on the couch next to Lily to read it.

A_gie and Evans, _

_We'd never really thought of it that way, but you're probably right. We're not doing anything to Mrs. F anymore, as you can see from the picture we sent you._

Adriyana picked up the picture that had fallen face down in her lap and turned it over. It was a Muggle picture, so it didn't move. She smiled and handed it to Lily. "That's sweet of them, isn't it?" Adriyana asked. It was a picture of James, Sirius, and some wrinkly old lady (Mrs. Fischbaum, they guessed). All three were smiling at the camera, though James and Sirius' smiles were rather forced.

Lily smiled and nodded. "As long as they say they're stopping. Is that the only part that has to do with me?" Adriyana's eyes scanned the rest of the letter and she nodded. "Want me to go make sandwiches?" Adriyana nodded again, and Lily headed to the kitchen.

_The Quidditch Cup was fantastic, have you read the article in the Prophet yet? I'm sorry you couldn't come, we would've had a great time, I think. Except for the paint Prongs bought for us to paint the flag on out chests with. He clearly does not know Muggle paint, because the one he got us is HOUSE PAINT, and it still hasn't come off. That's what the second picture is, by the way._

Adriyana shook the envelope, and another picture fell out. She laughed out loud, and pocketed it before Lily could see, but missed it a second later and pulled it out for a better look, just to be sure she saw what she thought she saw. This one was moving, and was a picture of Sirius by the lake behind James' house, lying out on a rock without his shirt on, his torso tinted pale blue and red. He waved brightly at Adriyana, and she giggled, but couldn't help but wonder aloud, "Who took this picture?"

"What's that, Agie?" Lily asked, peeking out from the kitchen.

"Nothing!" Adriyana shoved the picture back into the pocket of her shorts and turned her attention back to the letter.

_ I miss you a lot, Agie. Really. I didn't think it would be this hard to be away from you all summer. I never thought there'd be a girl that important to me._

_…What's this, now? I went to the loo, and someone wrote some mushy crap about you while I was gone. I should find out who it was and strangle them_.

I_ still can't wait to see you again. About three more weeks left until seventh, I don't think I'll see you before then, right? I looked into it, and there's no way Prongs and I can come visit, as much as I want to. Molly and Arthur Weasley need someone to stick around who can watch Bill and Charlie for them when Molly goes into labour, Or something stupid like that that Prongs' mum made us promise to do. It should be your job, apparently, but since you're gone, we have to do it. Can you believe that? Prongs and I are going to take care of young children! Hope he doesn't drop one on its head or anything, eh?_

_I really do miss you a lot, though._

_-Sirius_

* * *

_Amber,_

_How come you aren't writing me back?_

_-Remus_

* * *

_Remus,_

_Sorry, no time. Very busy. See you in a few weeks!_

_Love,_

_Amber_

* * *

_Sirius,_

_Babysitting? You and James? Lily spit out her lemonade when I told her. Better you than me, though. Have you met Bill and Charlie? Barking mad, both of them. I'd advise that you keep Charlie away from the broom shed, and don't do anything impressionable in front of Bill. Make sure you pay attention to them, Sirius, they're six and four. Please, PLEASE, don't do anything stupid._

_I miss you a lot, too. It's been too long.  
_

_Love,_

_Agie  
_

* * *

"Boys! Boys!" Mrs. Potter knocked on the door to James' room. "I just got a Floo call from Arthur Weasley, Molly's in labour and they need you over there to watch the kids! Come on!" James and Sirius came out the doorway and she pushed both of them from behind until they were in front of the fireplace. "Go!" 

James went first, grabbing a handful of powder from the pot on the mantle and yelling, "The Burrow!" before disappearing in toe emerald-green flames.

He shot out the other end, and was met by a frantic Arthur Weasley. "Oh, thank Merlin you're here! Just…they already ate, but they might want a snack, so…that pantry," He blurted. James nodded slowly, raising one eyebrow. "And Charlie goes to bed in an hour, Bill in two. I'll come back later to check on you or something, maybe." Arthur grabbed the Floo pot and stood aside as Sirius shot out of his fireplace and landed on the floor. "I'd better be going, see you soon, boys!" he waved to Bill and Charlie and disappeared with a yell of, "St. Mungos!"

Bill cocked his head and looked at James and Sirius. "Who're you?"

"We're supposed to watch you. Just for a little while," James said, sitting on the couch next to Bill.

"Where Agigie?" Charlie asked.

_'who?'_ James mouthed.

Sirius shrugged. _'Agie,'_he mouthed back. "She's on vacation. We're her friends, though."

"Yeah. So, what're you doing?" James leaned over and looked at Charlie's lap. "Oh! A colouring book. You're missing the lines a lot, though? Want me to help?"

"NO!" Charlie pushed James' hand away viciously. "Mine!"

"Okay, okay!" James exclaimed. "Calm down!"

Sirius sighed. This was going to be a _long_ night.

* * *

"PRONGS!" Sirius ran into the kitchen, where James was with Bill, and looked around frantically. "Where is Charlie?" 

"What are you talking about? He's on the couch with his colouring book, right—" James pointed at the empty couch. "Ah, hell."

"Well, we have to find him!" Sirius crouched down next to Bill. "Do you know where your brother could be."

Bill just shrugged and threw his hands in the air. "Nope."

"Maybe he's—" A loud crash from upstairs stopped James' sentence. "HOLY FUCK!"

"Fuck!" Bill crowed happily.

"No, don't say that!" Sirius begged, as James ran in the direction of the noise.

"Why? S'not hurting anyone. Fuck fuck fuckitty fuck! See?" he said.

Sirius put his hands on his had, grabbed two handfuls of his hair, and pulled. "How does Agie do this?" he muttered, letting go of his own hair in favour of Bill's arm as he pulled the young boy off to help James find Charlie.

* * *

_Agie,_

_We just got them to sleep. Took FOREVER, that. James keeps telling me to write more quietly so we don't wake them. You were right about Charlie and the broom shed, we locked it, but he somehow got in and rode his dad's broom right through a window. Don't worry, he's fine, he had a cut but we healed it. Prongs taught Bill some fantastic new vocabulary, I wonder what his parents will say when they when they find out._

_I guess I'm free to visit you know, but there's really no point, with just six days left until school, and three until you come back._

_See you at Kings Cross, okay?_

_-Sirius_

* * *

A/N-Okay, there's the second half! The next chapter will start off as their 7th year begins, so no more of the summer parts. I was nervous about what I was going to do for 7th year (I had NO idea!) but I've been brainstorming during Spanish class and I think I've got some good ones. Now I've got the ideas, and I just need the inspiration.

**Also, in case you don't know, there's a small RPG loosely based on this story. Kind of. Same characters, but not much else is the same. Anyway, if you're bored, or if you want to make me happy, you should go join. There hasn't been a lot of activity since our Sirius and Alice left (both slots are still open, by the way. Hint, hint.), and we're looking for any new people who'd like to join! You can be any character on the list, or you can make up your own! I promise it'll be fun!**

**It's at http://storyofthemwpp(dot)proboards50(dot)com, in case you're interested.**

Send me a review, won't you? Until next time!


	26. It's Called a 'Stingray' for a Reason!

* * *

**Chapter 25 -- It's Not Called a 'Ride-On-Me-and-I-Won't-Hurt-You-at-All,' Ray! **

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_Today's the day I go back to school. For some reason, I woke up at six o' clock this morning and I cannot fall back to sleep, no matter what I do. So, I gave up and owled Lily, I'm going to meet her in a few minutes in some Muggle food place by King's Cross, we're going to have a very early lunch before we get on the train; as much as I love sweets, I'd rather not have to eat myself sick on sugar the entire day._

_I'm SO excited to see everyone again, even though it's only been a week since I've seen Lily. As much as I miss them, I am really dreading N.E.W.T year. Knowing me, I will explode from too much work within the first week. I REALLY hope it ends up okay._

_Love,_

_Adriyana_

* * *

Mrs. Potter walked in to the kitchen, where Sirius and James were eating breakfast, or, more specifically, playing "Who can eat the most sausages at once without choking or burning the inside of his mouth?" 

"Boys! That's disgusting, cut it out before one of you needs to go to St. Mungo's!"

"'orry, 'um," James said through a mouth full of sausage. He swallowed. "Sorry, Mum."

She ruffled James' hair, and he grunted in protest, though he made no effort to smooth it back down again. "These are for you boys. Hogwarts letters." She handed them each a thick, cream-coloured envelope. James' had a rather obvious bulge in it.

"What the…?" James poked the bulge. "I'm _already_ Quidditch captain, what could this be, eh?" Sirius shrugged, opening his own letter and glancing at it quickly, before throwing it aside without a second glance, re-focusing his attention on trying to finish his breakfast before James did.

James pulled out the couple of sheets of parchment the envelope held. His eyes scanned the first one with the same careless ennui as Sirius' had, but they practically bulged out of his head as he held the next page closer to his glasses to get a better look. "Head Boy?"

Sirius looked up from his plate, a piece of sausage sticking out of the corner of his mouth. He cocked his head in a very dog-like manner and raised his eyebrows. "Mmm?"

James flipped the badge over and over in his hands. "I think Dumbledore might be going senile, Padfoot."

* * *

Lily waited, somewhat impatiently, as Adriyana finished her sandwich. "Come on, Agie, we're going to miss the train if you don't hurry." 

Adriyana looked at Lily dryly, and pointed to the clock on the wall of the café, which read 9:30. She took another bite out of her sandwich.

"Still, we can't be the last ones there, I'm Head Girl, how would that look?" Lily protested. Adriyana just shrugged and kept eating. "Agie!"

Adriyana grinned and reluctantly finished her sandwich. "There. Happy?" she said, after the entire thing was gone.

"Yeah, let's go," Lily said

Once their food was paid for (which took a while, because Lily didn't _quite_ have enough, and Adriyana had exchanged some at Gringotts the other day for just this occasion but lost it, and Lily was having a nervous fit by the time she remembered it was in her shoe), they headed to the door. "Are you sure you don't want to walk around a bit? The way I see it, the less time we have to sit on that train, the better." Adriyana asked.

"Fine, but I really don't want to be late. Let's walk towards King's Cross, at least." Not waiting for an answer, Lily headed in the direction of the platform.

About a block later, Adriyana yelled, "OI!" right in Lily's ear.

Lily jumped about a foot in the air and cupped her hand over it to stop the ringing. "Ow! Agie, What the—" Lily asked, but Adriyana was running towards the next intersection, trunk bouncing behind her ridiculously. "Wait!"

Adriyana stopped halfway down the next block and scanned the road. "Sorry, Lily. I thought I saw…never mind. Let's go to the train." Adriyana resumed walking, this time at a normal pace. Then, she squinted. "HEY! Sirius, James!! Wait up!" And she took off again. Lily grinned as she watched Adriyana go, her huge trunk bouncing along behind her.

After a few moments, Lily realized she was alone on the street and went to follow Adriyana.

* * *

"Sirius, James! Wait up!" 

Sirius' head whipped around when he heard his name. A gigantic grin spread across his face. "Prongs, look! It's Agie!" Sirius jumped up and down to see better over the heads of the people on the street, pointing wildly towards the mess of brunette waves bouncing towards them.

Sirius heard Adriyana's voice coming closer and closer, until she nudged a pudgy kid with a chocolate ice cream cone out of the way, stepping around him, and they were finally face to face. "Hey, Agie."

"Hi," she said breathlessly.

He leaned in, pressing his lips to hers firmly. The kiss warmed Sirius up like drinking hot chocolate after hours of being outside in the snow.

"Eew!" The pudgy kid said. "That's gross. You're going to get coo—"

Sirius opened his eyes and, without breaking the kiss, knocked the kid's ice cream cone to the pavement. Adriyana made a discontented noise against his lips.

"Sirius, that wasn't nice!" she said, as the kid tearfully asked his father for a new ice cream cone.

"But…he was…and I," Sirius stuttered.

She laughed, resting her forehead against his shoulder. "I missed you, too."

* * *

James made a wise decision in looking at the ground when Sirius and Adriyana 'reunited,' if the "Eew!" uttered by one of the bystanders was anything to go by. He kept his eyes trained on his feet until he heard the two of them talking again. 

When he finally looked up, Adriyana was rifling through her bag, and pulled out a wad of Muggle money, handing a couple notes to a crying boy, and apologising about something. She turned back to them and slapped Sirius' wrist jokingly. "You're lucky I don't need this anymore!" she held up the money in her hand.

"Why do you have that, anyway?" Sirius asked.

"Lily," she began, and James' head perked up at the name, "and I went to buy something to eat. Look, she's heading over here now!"

James turned his back to both of them, surreptitiously pulling a shiny, golden badge out of his pocket and pinning it to his chest. He turned around just as Lily approached, thrusting his chest out so the badge caught the sun.

"Hey, Evans! Have a good summer?" Sirius asked.

"For the most part, yes," she said, somewhat stiffly. "Although I'm glad we're going ba—You're _Head Boy, _Potter?" Lily gaped.

James looked down at the badge in mock surprise. "Oh, yeah, I forgot I was wearing this. He shot a covert glare at Sirius, who was currently biting his sleeve in an attempt not to laugh. "I see you're Head Girl, eh?"

"Yes," she said, keeping her gaze on James' with an icy-cold stare he struggled not to break.

"I guess you're still mad at us for what happened with Prong's neighbour," Sirius deadpanned. "Don't worry, though, it wasn't obvious at all."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I was sure it would've been Remus, though."

"Well, Moony has his reasons." Sirius said, nervously skirting around the topic. "…So, how were the Balearics?" he asked, casually throwing his arm across Adriyana's shoulders.

Adriyana's eyes lit up and she jumped to answer the question for both of them. "It was so great, Sirius! There was this part of the ocean, where if you went out far enough, it was only halfway up your calves…and there were stingray there, and you could stand on them and ride them!"

"Agie, I told you _not _to do that. They didn't like it. Remember when they chased us?"

Adriyana waved her hand. "Oh, what could they do to us, anyway?"

"it's called a _sting_ ray, Agie! Not a 'Ride-on-me-and-I-won't-hurt-you-at-all,' ray!"

Adriyana shrugged. "I'm still alive, aren't I?"

* * *

As they got closer and closer to the platform, their topic of conversation shifted towards Sirius and James' short (and disastrous) attempt at minding Bill and Charlie. 

"You did NOT!" Lily exclaimed incredulously, the surprised smile on her face suggesting she was more interested than she was angry.

James' eyes bulged. "In my defense, it was a pretty normal reaction for someone to have when a three-year-old goes missing and you hear breaking glass."

Adriyana sighed. "I warned you about Bill, though. He picks up a lot of stuff by watching people. That's why," her eyes flipped from James to Sirius, "You two are the last people on earth who should be watching him."

"But I just _have _to know what Mrs. Weasley said when she found out," Lily said, eyes shining with excitement. James figured it was a good thing that she was interested in something he had taken part in, even if it was just because she wanted to her the result of him doing something wrong.

"Are you sure you want to know?" James asked. Lily nodded, her fiery red hair flipping up at the ends.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Bill now thinks 'fuck' is Charlie's…new name, or something. At any rate, he hasn't stopped calling him that yet. And he calls the new baby…his name's Percy, I think…" He looked at James, who nodded. "He calls him Charlie. Weird, huh? They can't convince him otherwise."

Lily laughed. "So, what did Molly say?"

"Oh, she was _mad_ . We _tried _to explain to her that it was only because Charlie crashed through their bedroom window on Arthur's broomstick that I cursed in the first place, but that only made her angrier," James explained, his tone making it sound as if this was an incredibly unreasonable reaction on Mrs. Weasley's part.

"Arthur was more forgiving, though. Said it's okay about Charlie, that happens all the time, and he'd do a Memory Charm on Bill as soon as Molly was out of the house, because she wouldn't let him," Sirius added. "Here we are."

James looked up and realised they were already at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. He watched with amusement as Sirius leaned against the wall, the shaky steps backward making it look as if he'd toppled over and landed rather roughly. Adriyana followed him, looking around For Muggles and hastily going through the wall, pulling her trunk behind her.

James picked up Lily's trunk in an offer to carry it for her, but she reached out at the same time and their hands brushed, lingering for perhaps a few moments normal than was necessary.

James spent the entire train ride to Hogwarts trying to analyse what the blush that had spread across Lily's cheeks could possibly mean.

* * *

_Diary,_

_Right now, I'm writing to you from that big armchair in Gryffindor Tower with a huge smile on my face. Oh, did I forget the brand new, shiny HEAD GIRL badge I'm wearing? I'm so excited that I got it, but Agie pointed out that, "You're the only one who's surprised, Lils. Everyone knew you'd get it." Also, everyone's pretty shocked about _James Potter_ being chosen as Head Boy. I'm pretty shocked, too, scared actually, but not so much for the future of the young children of the school as I am for the fact that I'm going to have to spend time alone with him, now. We haven't talked at all since that night in the common room. Needless to say, our first meeting was really awkward._

_Speaking of awkwardness, Agie and Black are practically _unbearable _to be around. Honestly, it's disgusting. I'd really, REALLY like to go up to them and just scream, "NOBODY WANTS TO SEE YOU TWO SUCK FACE! KNOCK IT OFF!" I doubt they'd listen for very long, though._

_But they just came into the common room. Oh, crap. They might not stop, but it couldn't hurt, right?_

_-Lily_

* * *

A/N: So, this is the last chapter I'm writing before finals…It'd be nice to have some kind of consolation when I fail all of them. ::looks pointedly at review box::See you all next chapter! 


	27. The Pile of Stupid That is Dating Prongs

* * *

** Chapter Twenty-Seven – The Pile of Stupid That is Dating My Best Friend**

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_I'm so excited, my first Prefect meeting as Head Girl is tonight! The only thing we did so far was on the train, where James and I picked out the passwords for the House common rooms. He was, believe it or not, pretty mature about the whole thing, at least until we had to pick the Slytherin common room's password. He didn't get past suggesting 'Slytherins are all ugly gits,' as theirs before I made it up myself. It strikes me as odd that he (for the most part) doesn't take this Head Boy thing as a joke, or a way to sneak around without getting in trouble. He hasn't done any of that though. At least not yet. Strange, huh?_

_-Lily_

* * *

James tried his hardest not to yawn as he and Lily tried to organize the patrol schedule for the prefects this year. He held an unfocused gaze, unintentionally staring at the pearl earring in Lily's left ear while she asked him whether the Hufflepuffs or the Slytherins should take the second floor classrooms on Tuesdays. 

"James…does that sound good? James?" Neatly-filed fingernails snapped loudly in front of his face. "Potter! Stay with me, here! Just a little longer and we're done with this."

James nodded. "Uh. The Hufflepuffs? Yeah, them…"

Lily scribbled something on her clipboard, and quickly filled in the last few boxes on her own. She got off of her chair, tapping the schedule with her wand and making copies of it, handing them around until every prefect there had one. James finally gave in and yawned as he scanned the faces of the people in the room, looking for anyone he recognized. Just three (because Snivellus didn't count). Remus, Jeremy (who he mentally kicked a couple of times), and an ex-girlfriend of his, Gemma…Something-or-other.

Gemma looked over at him and smiled, twirling a strand of pale yellow hair around her finger. James noted, with a roll of his eyes, that she looked pretty much exactly the same as she had two years ago. She was even wearing the same pink hairclips, the ones Peter saw and laughed because he said his six-year-old cousin wore the same ones. She giggled at him, and he raised his eyebrows and gave her a dry smile.

He sighed heavily. He would've been perfectly happy to never speak to Gemma again, but judging by the way he was looking at him, that wasn't going to happen.

Someone jostled James' chair and he realized everyone around him was getting up and walking out the door.

He turned to Lily. "We're finished?"

But Lily wasn't there. His eyes flickered to the door, where he could see Lily walking down the corridor, hand-in-hand with…_Jeremy. _

"Prongs, what are you doing? You'll need that." Remus grabbed James' hands, which he hadn't noticed were furiously tearing the patrol schedule Lily had given him into little pieces.

"Oh. Er, thanks, Moony," James said, tapping the shredded chart with his wand to put the ripped bits together.

"No problem." He pointed to his own schedule. "I've got patrol now, actually. See you later, okay?" he said, when the corridor they were in split into two. James followed the one that led back to Gryffindor Tower, and Remus took the other.

James nodded and set off by himself, muttering darkly about…certain people. When he was about halfway there, he heard the sound of shoes clacking on the stone floor and turned around. "Hello?" he asked the darkness. Something pink winked back at him.

"Hi, Jamie!" Gemma stepped out of the shadows, her barrettes catching the light from the torch above his head. James cringed.

"Oh, er…hi," James smiled feebly. "What're you doing here?"

"I was wondering if I could walk back with you."

James was confused. "Isn't the Hufflepuff common room that way?" He pointed down a flight of stairs they had just passed.

"I know a shortcut," she said evasively, waving her hand. "By the way, congratulations on getting Head Boy!"

"Er…thank you?" James said, raising one eyebrow. He wondered if it was rude to tell someone to go away if he said 'please' first.

"You got really tall," she said.

James was a little surprised by this random comment, and he looked down a good foot so his eyes met Gemma's. "You haven't," he replied dully, as he looked intently at the patrol schedule, where one of the boxes was glowing red, which meant somebody wasn't on duty. He looked at the box. _Jeremy Howes. _of course.

His comment struck Gemma as extremely funny, for some reason, and her high-pitched giggle startled half the portraits in the hallway. "Jamie, you're so _funny_!"

James rolled his eyes, wondering what the fastest possible way to get away from Gemma's annoying comments and Flitwick-like voice was. "So, Gemma…it's close to curfew. You should probably go back to your common room now." He pointed back the way they came. "That way."

She giggled again. "No, no, Jamie. I'm a prefect now; I can't get in trouble for staying out late." She rolled her eyes, as if this should be obvious. James went to correct her, but she kept talking: "Besides, I'd so much rather stay with _you_ for longer." She batted her eyelashes. _Oh, please go away, please._ He repeated the words over and over in his head.

Behind them, someone made a noise like an angry cat. "Excuse me," someone pushed past them in an angry huff.

"Hi, Lily!" Gemma waved to the redhead as if they were close friends.

Lily didn't answer, just kept walking, pulling Jeremy's arm so he had to stumble to catch up with her. "Lil! Slow down!" echoed through the hall in their wake.

James decided to stop trying to get Gemma off his back, because that didn't really seem to be working, and instead he began to just ignore her completely. It had struck him as a little odd that she suddenly wanted to talk to him, but then he realized this was basically the first time he'd seen her since they'd broken up. He still wanted her to leave just as much (i.e., pretty damn much), but at least now it made sense…kind of.

James had hoped Gemma would leave as soon as they reached the Fat Lady's portrait, but no such luck. She just turned to face him and kept talking. James noted the sincere, slightly nervous expression on her face but still couldn't bring himself to listen to her, especially not when a much more important conversation was going on right behind them.

"I have to go back to my dormitory now…see you soon, Lil."

A second voice responded brusquely, "Okay…bye now."

James tilted his head slightly, just enough to see Lily kiss Jeremy goodbye without making it too obvious that he was staring. He kept looking at Lily in the same discreet way long after Jeremy had left, the expression on her face becoming noticeably more unsettled. She probably should have reached the common room by now, until he realized it was Gemma's constant stream of words that were keeping her rooted to the spot, and they were also probably the reason for the expression on her face. It was kind of strange, since the last time he'd seen that expression was on Adriyana's face yesterday at breakfast, but it couldn't possibly mean the same thing…

_Adriyana was sitting across from James at the Gryffindor table, eating toast and reading _Witch Weekly. _Her eyes kept glancing up at the door to the Great Hall. "Where's Sirius?" she asked him._

_James shrugged. "Sleeping?"_

_Peter pointed towards the door. "There he is."_

_James turned and saw Sirius walking towards them, before he was stopped halfway by a tall, dark-haired Hufflepuff girl._

_The expression on Adriyana's face changed from a curious one to a snarling, envious one as the girl ran a finger down Sirius arm._

_"Agie?" James called, waving his hand in front of her face. "Are you all right?"_

But that meant Lily was…

_Jealous? _

That didn't really make sense, though. Why would Lily be jealous of him…or Gemma?

Maybe he should listen to what she was saying. He looked down at her, but she wasn't talking to her, just smiling up at him expectantly, giggling and twirling a strand of hair around her finger.

"Er…could you repeat that?" He asked.

A blush spread across Gemma's face. "I wanted to know if you'd go to go on a date with me…to Hogsmeade?"

If James could pick one thing in the world he wanted to do least at that moment, it would be to spend more time with Gemma, followed closely by being locked in a cage with a live Acromantula. He looked up at Lily, who was _still_ standing the same spot with that same expression on her face. James remembered the way Adriyana had acted when Sirius had finally shook off the dark-haired girl and made it over to them, not angry but wanting to prove to every other girl in the hall that Sirius was spoken for. Maybe Lily was thinking along those lines? The thought alone made James grin, and Gemma must've thought it was directed at her, because she smiled back.

"So, you'll go, then?" she asked hopefully.

"I'd be happy to," he said, forcing the smile to stay on his face.

* * *

Somehow (probably through Lily), Remus had found out about the date, and had told Sirius and Peter by the next afternoon. The only thing they didn't know, however, was that James wasn't exactly happy about it. They had all detested Gemma just as much as James had, and the fact that he actually wanted to give her another shot made them positively _livid._

It was Sirius who took it the worst, though. After all, he had _loathed_ Gemma even when James still liked her. To him, she was nothing more than a air-headed, best-friend's-time-user-upping idiot. In fact, he was one of the biggest reasons for their break-up in the first place.

By the end of that day, Sirius had yet to even see James. Convinced he was avoiding confrontation, he was taking his ager out on the rocks by the lake, accompanied by a very fed up Adriyana.

"I just _can't_ understand it!" Sirius skipped a rock across the Lake. "Last I checked, she was about as unbearable to him as she was to me…it makes _no_ sense!"

He turned his head to look at Adriyana, who was slouched against a gigantic rock, doodling on her shoes, which she'd pulled off. She looked up. "Have you talked to James about it?"

Sirius tossed another rock, which skipped three times before sinking under the water. "No. I haven't seen him at all! I don't think he wants to talk to me, he knows I'm going to be angry." He tossed one last rock and lay down next to Adriyana, propping his head up on the rock.

"Well I think that, as much as she bothers you, you should be more concerned with whether or not James is happy. You _did_ want him to stop pining over Lily…maybe this is his way of finally getting over her." Adriyana looked somehow disconcerted with what she'd just said. "Hmm," she murmured thoughtfully.

"Agie, you don't understand. This girl is, hands down, the stupidest person I've ever met. It's seriously painful to be in the same room as her because her presence alone makes you dumber. I thought he'd gotten rid of her for good but now…" he rolled his eyes.

Adriyana laughed. "I'm sure she's not THAT bad, Sirius."

"You haven't met her…I can assure you, she is far worse than _'that bad'_."

She put her hand on his knee. "If she really is like that, James has to have some other explanation. He wouldn't go for someone just because it's easy. The years he's spent chasing after Lily are enough evidence for that."

"Yeah maybe." He looked at Adriyana. "But she is just the worst, Agie. When she was going out with Prongs, she was always trying to set me and Moony and Wormtail up with her friends, and she thought that just because she was Prongs' girlfriend we all really liked her, and she'd walk up to me in the halls and talk to me! Almost like she thought I actually wanted to talk to her. It was so…ugh!" He ripped two fistfuls of grass out of the ground.

"Calm down, Sirius." Adriyana rolled over twice so her head was resting on Sirius' chest and traced small circles over his shirt with her fingers.

"This is fun…" he mused.

She hit him playfully, rolling her eyes. "Is it helping?" He nodded. "Good. Anyway, you don't need to worry about James; he can take care of himself."

Sirius couldn't help but relax into the touch and start believing Adriyana's words. He closed his eyes and smiled. "Agie, you're—"

"Er, is this a bad time?" A squeaky voice asked. Sirius knew that voice, and he squeezed his eyelids shut tighter.

"Yes it bloody _is,_" He said, loudly.

Finally, he opened his eyes and saw Gemma reaching out to shake hands with Adriyana, who still had her head against his chest. "Hi, I'm Gemma!" She said brightly.

"Kill me!" Sirius whispered in the same shrill voice.

"Did you want something?" Adriyana asked wearily, closing her eyes.

"I kind of…I think James is avoiding me," she said.

"Yes. He is. Can you go now?" Sirius grumbled.

"Oh, Sirius! You're funny!" Gemma laughed.

"Why are you asking our advice?" Adriyana sounded very tired, and her eyes were still closed. Sirius put his hands on her back and slowly rubbed his palms up and down; hoping Gemma would get the message. ('the message' being: leave us the hell alone.)

"Well…you're both friends with my boyfriend. That makes us friends, right?"

"James isn't your boyfriend." Adriyana opened one eye. "He agreed to go on one date with you…it's not like he has to spend all his time with you, now. Besides, I've never met you before."

"I think he was looking for you, though," Sirius said. Adriyana looked up at him. "In the tower."

Gemma brightened. "Which tower?" she asked eagerly.

"Which one is farthest away from here?"

"North Tower," Adriyana whispered, smiling against his shirt.

"North Tower!" he said cheerfully. Gemma ran off.

"See? Normal people don't DO that!" Sirius whispered fiercely, once she was out of earshot.

"That _was_ pretty damn annoying," Adriyana agreed, nodding slowly.

"Told you."

"So go bother James about it."

"I will." He went to move, but instantly felt cold when Adriyana's hands stilled. "Later," he decided, and yawned widely, closing his eyes and forgetting all about Gemma for the moment.

* * *

Everything Sirius had let leave his mind when he was by the lake with Adriyana came rushing back as soon as he entered the dormitory and Peter ran up to him, complaining about how Gemma had accosted him in the hallway saying something about North Tower. Sirius had smirked, but then remembered that that 'pile of stupid' (as Peter had so fondly dubbed her) was going on a date with his best friend, and his expression darkened. 

Sirius and Peter were talking about doing something to Gemma while James was at his prefect meeting, where he wouldn't notice, but then they remembered she was there too. It was really a shame, because Peter had hatched a rather brilliant idea involving a Severing Charm and Gemma's pillow. ("It'll cut her hair off while she's asleep, Padfoot!")

Instead, Sirius and Peter had taken to glowering at the dormitory door, waiting for James to walk back through it.

After about fifteen minutes of staring at it, the doorknob turned and someone pushed the door open. Tired of waiting so long for something to happen, Peter yelled incoherently at the figure in the doorway.

Remus jumped about a foot in the air. "AAH! WHA--what is it!?"

Peter shrugged. "Never mind. Sorry, Moony."

"Never mind? If you decide to scream in my ear as I walk through the door, I'd rather like to know why!"

"Well, it's a long story, actually," Sirius began.

"What is?" James asked, walking in through the doorway.

Sirius held up one finger. "It'll have to wait. Prongs, I need to talk to you." He pushed James into the wardrobe, closing the door behind both of them.

"Why are we in here? Something's poking me in the—"

Sirius cut him off. "Gemma Roberts?" he asked.

"Padfoot, I—"

"I thought you couldn't stand her!"

"But it's not—"

"Don't you remember that huge party we threw for you when you finally got rid of her? That was because we were happy about it!"

"The date is a setup," James deadpanned.

"Oh," Sirius said calmly. "Wanna go on a kitchen raid?"

James laughed. "She makes Lily jealous," he explained. "I think."

Sirius looked incredulous for a moment (though it really wasn't noticeable in the dark). "All right, Prongs! Didn't I tell you she'd come around eventually?"

"No. You told me to give it up, because no girl's worth that."

Sirius shrugged the comment off. "Details. So, how about that kitchen raid?"

"Sure."

Sirius pushed against the door to the wardrobe door, but it didn't budge. "What the—Moony, Wormtail! Knock it off!"

"Sorry, we can't hear you!" Peter yelled.

"What is it?" James asked.

"They've Charmed the door closed." Sirius pushed against it for emphasis. "Too bad we don't have a wand…it's been a while since I've needed to use the Reductor Curse for anything useful."

"Padfoot! Blowing _anything_ up is useful for its entertainment value alone. Hmm. Maybe if we both ran into the door at the same time?" James asked. Sirius nodded and they backed up against the opposite side of the wardrobe. "Ready?" Sirius nodded again. "Okay. One...two…three!" They both threw themselves forward and hit the other wall.

_THUNK._

"Prongs?"

"Yeah, Padfoot?"

"We knocked the wardrobe over, didn't we?"

"I think so."

"Well. This makes things exponentially worse," Sirius remarked casually. He pushed a set of Peter's dress robes out of his face.

"You both almost killed me!" Peter yelled.

"Good!" Sirius retorted. "Just…get us out of here!"

"We…er…can't," said Remus, tentatively. "Unless you can think of a way to get to the door."

Eventually, after a lot of failed Charms and pushing, they righted the wardrobe again and Sirius and James managed to get out.

Sirius blinked in the light when he stepped out, then turned to James and winced. "Prongs…please tell me that is not your wand in your pocket."

* * *

A/N: Okay, so this last scene is kind of excessively long, but I couldn't find a good place to end it. I still think it's pretty funny, though. I hope you did, too. 

I have the next few chapters planned out, but I don't know when I'll finally get around to writing them. Definitely no slower than I've been going, but not faster (like I said I might do). Sorry about that. I'm at the beach now, and it's really easy to get sidetracked. There's so much to do.

Can you believe it's been a whole year since I started writing?

…That's it for now, I guess. See you all next chapter!


	28. Snape, the Giant Squid, and Their Kids

* * *

** Chapter Twenty-Seven – Sirius now Knows What It'll Look Like If Snape and the Giant Squid had a Child**

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_Lily has been spending a lot of time with James lately. Definitely more than is necessary for them to do whatever the Head Students are supposed to do. She doesn't seem to notice, either, she's all smiley and oblivious about it all. Sirius noticed it, too, and we both think James is just using the 'Let's go do Head Student stuff together!' thing as an excuse to spend time with her. Last time they went, she said he showed her a bunch of secret passages around the school and how to get into the kitchens, and when I asked her what that had to do with her Head Girl duties, she said, "Oh…James never really mentioned that bit. I guess it's so that people don't slip past me and sneak out of the school. Yeah, that must be it." I'm willing to bet that they didn't talk about anything like that at all; they just had something to eat in the kitchens. Kind of like a date. I find it really strange that Lily hasn't noticed any of this AT ALL. It's something she should've picked up on by now, right?_

_Love,  
Adriyana_

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_Something really bizarre happened today. I haven't seen Jeremy much in a couple of days (I have been busy lately), and when I passed by him in the hallway today, he didn't say anything to me, just gave me this _look_. It was somewhere between confusion and anger, which I really don't understand. I mean, last time I spoke to him we were completely happy with each other, so it makes no sense that he's suddenly mad at me. I was trying to think of something I might've done that may have prompted it, but I couldn't come up with anything. Weird, huh?_

_-Lily_

* * *

"I can't believe we have to do this again," James groaned, rolling his eyes as he stepped into the line forming outside of one of the more rarely used classrooms. 

"It's not the same as last time," Sirius explained. "In our fifth year, McGonagall did this to help us decide what job we wanted to take; this time, I bet you anything it's some Ministry bloke who is going to try and convince us to take jobs there."

"Really, you think so?" Adriyana asked, as she took a space in the line behind the two of them, glancing at where Lily, Amber, and Alice stood at the front, almost at the door. Sirius nodded resolutely, and she groaned. "They're so obnoxious, always butting in everywhere and trying to convince us that they know everything and that if you do what they tell you to you'll be perfectly safe."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Plus, I actually _am_ taking a Ministry job, and now I have to tell them that when I'd really rather piss them off."

"I'll piss them off enough for both of us, Padfoot," James replied. "I'm not going to take a job when we leave school at all."

"No?" Adriyana said, curiously. "Why not?"

"I just…think I could be a lot more helpful to the cause if I just spent all my time doing work for," he dropped his voice to a whisper and looked around. "The Order, don't you think?."

Peter walked out of the room and headed towards them. "Interesting choice, Prongs."

"Is the person in there from the Ministry?" Sirius asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. Wants me to be an Obliviator. Lots of attacks and suspicious Muggles, apparently," Peter said and shrugged. "Where's Moony?"

"Didn't come. He didn't want to, because he said," Sirius broke off, casting a nervous glance at Adriyana. "He's…er…not feeling well."

James felt a pang of guilt. He knew Remus was feeling just fine, except for the usual symptoms of the nearing full moon, and was only skipping out because, being a werewolf, he'd have an extremely hard time finding a job at all, no matter how hard he worked. James knew that Remus knew this fact well, and didn't want or need to be told by anyone else.

Peter laughed nervously and turned back to James. "So, Prongs, er, what are you going to do about money without a job?"

"I've got enough," James said, waving his hand dismissively. "When my dad's parents died, they left me a pretty big amount of money in their will. I guess they wanted me to spend most of my time…you know, doing what I'm planning on doing…and they wanted to make sure I was well off. I've got more than enough to not need a paying job for a very long time."

Peter nodded slowly. "Okay, then," he said, before he started heading off in the direction of the Great Hall for dinner. James looked towards the front of the line. Amber opened the door and walked out, looking contemplative and motioning for the next person in line (Lily) to go into the classroom.

* * *

"Er…hi," Lily said nervously, looking at the short man with glasses and greying brown hair who sat at the teacher's desk in the room, a quill clutched in his pudgy hand. 

"Hello, Miss…"

"Evans," Lily finished for him.

"Miss Evans. Have you thought about what kind of job you're going to take once you leave Hogwarts?"

Lily winced. She'd been trying as hard as she could not to think about leaving Hogwarts. It was like a second home to her and she hadn't yet grasped that she'd spend only a few more months of her life here. "Er, yes. I want to make Potions. Maybe I'd start out making medical potions, for St. Mungo's, but…one day, I'd like to try inventing some of my own Potions."

"I suppose that's a decent choice…but wouldn't you rather work at the Ministry as a," The man looked disgruntled and started flipping through the pages on his clipboard. "Hmm..."

Lily smiled. _He can't find a Ministry job close enough to what I want to do,_ she thought triumphantly.

"Nope. I'd like to make Potions for a living. If that's all," she said, making her way to the door. The man feebly tried to stop her, but she kept walking.

* * *

"James Potter, sir," James said, as the man opened his mouth. He sat down in the chair set down in front of him, and looked at the man imploringly, trying hard not to smile. 

"Ah, Mr. Potter. Your parents are fantastic Aurors, are they not?" James nodded. "Are you planning to follow in their footsteps?"

James shook his head. "No, sir. I don't think I'm going to take a job when I leave school, at least not for a couple of years."

The man's eyes bugged out of his head, and he looked angry. "But Mr. Potter, don't you know the Ministry is sorely lacking in…many people have left to go into hiding since these attacks started and…" the man started shaking and his face turned red.

_I'm going to be doing more good for anyone then the Ministry ever will,_ he repeated over and over in his head. _But I can't tell you that…_

* * *

James walked out and rolled his eyes at Sirius, before pointing Sirius into the room and walking off. 

Sirius entered the room, not even closing the door behind him. He wanted to make this as fast as possible.

"Hello…what's your name?" He shuffled through his papers, looking For Sirius's.

"I'm planning on being an Auror," Sirius said. "Do you need anything else?"

The man stopped shuffling. "That's…that's excellent!" The man smiled excitedly.

"So…I can go?" Sirius asked, not wanting to see any more of the man gushing over what a great choice he'd made. He walked back out the open door, smiling at Adriyana. "All yours."

* * *

After his meeting with the Ministry career planner, James followed Peter's path to the Great Hall. 

Sirius sat down at the Gryffindor table almost immediately after him. "That was fast, Padfoot," he remarked.

Sirius shrugged, piling mashed potatoes on his plate. "I didn't have much to say, really."

Adriyana came and sat down a few seats away from them, next to Lily, after a few minutes. She turned around and smiled at them. "Hey Remus, I heard you weren't feeling well, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Remus said, looking up from his plate.

"Are you sure? You look kind of pale," Lily added, and Adriyana nodded. "Maybe you should go see Madam Pomfrey."

James looked at Peter. "When's the next full?" he mouthed.

Peter looked at him oddly. "It's tomorrow," he whispered back. "You don't usually forget, Prongs."

James immediately felt guilty about having forgotten. He'd been very busy lately, and had actually been spending an excess of time with Lily. He couldn't help it; he kept asking her to do stuff with him under the premise of Head duties because he was just so overjoyed they could now easily maintain a perfectly civilised conversation.

He looked up. "So, what did that Ministry bloke say about your job choices?" He asked, pointing at Lily and Adriyana.

Lily shrugged. "He wasn't thrilled with what I want to do, but I didn't give him any space for negotiation, really. I actually think I can do a lot of good for anyone injured in the war if I'm making potions; he was just upset I didn't take a job at the Ministry."

James nodded. "What about you, Agie?"

Adriyana dragged her fork through her mashed potatoes. "I'm not sure. I told him the same thing I told McGonagall fifth year, that I wanted to be an Unspeakable, but now I'm not so sure."

"What d'you mean?" Sirius asked.

"Well, I might want to wait a year and do something really simple. I expect I'll be doing a lot of stuff for," she gestured towards James with her hand, "as well, so I think I'd be a lot happier working at Madam Malkin's or Quality Quidditch Supplies, even if it's only for a short time, because—"

Lily dropped her fork. "Can we _please_ stop talking about what we're going to do after Hogwarts? I still can't think about leaving without getting upset."

Sirius looked incredulous. "It's still _September._ We're not exactly leaving _soon,_ you know."

Lily gestured with her hands wildly. "More reason not to think about it, we've got the end of the year for that!"

"Fine, we can talk about something else," James said, before feeling someone tap on his shoulder. Sirius frowned at whoever it was. He had a good feeling, though. Ever since he'd agreed to go on a date with Gemma (even though it was still about a month away), she'd been pestering him to spend every free minute he had with her.

"Jamiiiie, turn around!" The shrill voice eliminated all doubt in his mind over who it was, and he immediately looked at Lily to gauge her reaction.

Lily had her eyes focused on her plate, and was looking rather menacingly at her green beans. James grinned, and turned around. "What is it, Gemma?" he asked.

"Will you take me to Hogsmeade tomorrow?" she asked.

"There's no Hogsmeade trip scheduled tomorrow," Adriyana pointed out.

"But Jamie can get in, right? He's in seventh year, aren't you allowed to go whenever you want?"

James didn't bother pointing out that he went into Hogsmeade whenever he wanted _before_ he was in seventh year. He sighed. "On weekends, yeah, but—"

"_You're_ not allowed to go in, just James," Lily said to her dinner plate.

"Right."

"Oh," Gemma pouted. "But can you—"

"He's busy tomorrow, anyway," Lily snapped, finally looking at Gemma's face.

Lily was right, he was supposed to go to Hogsmeade with _her_ tomorrow, for what he'd told her was password change planning but was really Butterbeer. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Adriyana grinning into her pumpkin juice.

"What about tomorrow night, then? We can sneak in…"

"I'm busy then, too," James said, sighing.

"Well, what about—"

"Nope, that's not good, either," Sirius said, in a conversational tone.

Gemma blinked. "Oh."

"Oh. Gemma," Adriyana said. Gemma turned to look at her. "Go find a mirror; you've got something just," Adriyana pointed to her left cheek. "Here."

Gemma gasped and clapped her hand over her right cheek.

"Other side." Adriyana was clearly trying very hard not to burst out laughing.

"Be right back!" Gemma called, running for the door of the Great Hall.

Adriyana turned to James. "Are you _serious?_ Her?"  
"What?" James asked, innocently. He gave Lily a pointed look. She just growled and speared several green beans angrily with her fork.

* * *

As Lily was walking out of the Great Hall with Adriyana after dinner, she found she couldn't stop talking about Gemma. 

"Agie, don't you think she's just so unbelievably STUPID? And! And, she—" Someone sided up to her and grabbed her hand.

Shocked, she tried to pull it away, but the person just laughed and said, "Hey!" in a joking way.

She looked up. "Oops." She giggled as she saw Jeremy's face. "Sorry." She relaxed her hand back into his.

"Haven't talked to you all week," he said quietly. "Barely even seen you."

"Oh, yeah, about that…I've just been busy."

Jeremy huffed. "I've noticed."

Adriyana looked between the two of them. "Oh, look, I have to go, now," she said, before turning abruptly into an empty classroom.

Lily smiled, and Jeremy pulled her down a more deserted corridor.

"So, now that it's the weekend…did you want to do something tomorrow?"

Lily smiled. "Sure, I'd love to!"

"Great, then—"

"But I can't. I've got plans with James. We're going to pick out the new passwords for all the portraits for October. Maybe after that?"

Jeremy looked very angry all of a sudden. "You know what? Forget about it. I've got to go…"

He began to walk away, but Lily grabbed his arm. "Wait! What's wrong?" she asked.

"You honestly don't know?" he asked disbelievingly. "Really?"

"If something's wrong with," she pointed at him, and then at herself. "Us…then I have no idea what it is."

He raised his eyebrows. "Fine. I'll tell you. EVERY BLOODY DAY of this week that I've had _any_ free time to spend with you, you were doing 'important things' with _James Potter._"

"We're just doing the regular stuff the Head Girl and Boy do!"

"No." Jeremy shook his head. "I'm positive that no other two Head Students have needed that much time to work. Something else is definitely going on there, whether you're aware of it or not!"

"We're not doing anything like _that!_" Lily yelled. It was the truth, she was sure of it, but she couldn't help the blush that spread across her cheeks at the thought.

"Fine!" he threw his hands up in the air. "Talk to me when you stop kidding yourself, and when you're actually ready to spend time with your _ boyfriend!_" he pointed angrily at himself.

"You're not entitled to all of my free time, you know! I've just got a lot more work to do now that I'm Head Girl, and you're going to have to accept that!" she yelled.

Jeremy glared at her. "I understand that, I do. But I can tell, Lil, from the way he looks at you, that there's something else there. I don't expect to be the first priority in your life, but I won't sit idly by when some bloke starts making a move on you like Potter is. Forget it. I'm not competing with him, just…let me know when you start to see reason, okay?" And with that, he turned and stormed off.

Lily crossed her arms. "That's insane! I'm not doing anything outside of what I should be with James…I'm definitely not. Yeah."

"Of course not, dear," said one of the portraits on the wall, before yawning widely.

* * *

Lily tilted her bottle of Butterbeer up to her lips and drained the last few drops out of the golden-brown bottle. "I can't wait until we can drink this stuff hot without being disgusted by it," she mused, looking out the window at the sunny landscape of Hogsmeade. James nodded his agreement, before getting lost in thought again. After a few minutes, she turned her attention back to the sheet of parchment that sat between them. "So, what do you think?" she asked, and snapped her fingers in his face when she noticed he wasn't paying attention. 

"Huh?" James asked, shaking his head as if to clear it. He'd been looking very contemplative all afternoon, which was very odd, because she didn't think James Potter thought about _anything_, he just…did it.

_I wonder what he's thinking about. If Jeremy's right, then it's probably me. But he's definitely wrong, so….what is he thinking about?!_

"What do I think about what, Lily?" He repeated.

"Password. For The Prefect's Bathroom."

"Er. How about…"

"Got it! It'll be 'lemon ice'!" She laughed nervously.

"Er…all right, then." James said, and Lily wrote it down on her paper. She'd show it to Jeremy next time she saw him, as proof this was what she did with James.

"Do you want another Butterbeer?" he asked.

"Sure." She smiled as he took her empty bottle and headed for the counter.

She looked back down at the paper, and picked out a few more passwords before James returned.

He walked back up to the table, handing her a cold bottle of butterbeer.

"Okay, so I've come up with most of the passwords, but I haven't got one for Gryffindor yet." She tapped the quill against the parchment, thinking. "Can you think of anything?"

"I've been thinking about something, Lily…I really think it would be great if we threw a party for all the seventh years!"

"Wow," said Lily slowly. "That had almost nothing to do with the Gryffindor password."

"No, think about it! You were saying yesterday how you don't want to leave Hogwarts, right? Well, we should make our last year here memorable as many ways as we can!"

"Er," Lily managed. " I don't think McGonagall will let us have another dance at Hogwarts after Agie and Sirius—"

"But we don't even have to tell them, Lily!" James was falling out of his seat with excitement. "It could just be us two, throwing a party for all the seventh years!"

"But—"

James gasped loudly. "We could have it HERE, Lily, at the Three Broomsticks! Because the Seventh-years are allowed to come here on weekends! We can ask Rosemerta to close down the bar and everything! I'm going to go ask now!"

And with that, he took off, taking a sort of victory lap around the bar before stopping in front of the barmaid and bouncing excitedly as he explained his idea.

Lily felt the corners of her lips curl up as she watched James. _Bloody gorgeous idiot,_ she thought, feeling very guilty for letting it into her mind, especially now that it wouldn't leave.

* * *

"Lily?" Adriyana asked, walking into their dormitory later that evening. "Lily, are you here? I'm bored." 

Lily was sitting on her bed, deeply engrossed in a battered library book. "Hi, Agie," she murmured distractedly, before burying her head right back into the pages.

"Never mind," Adriyana said. "You're busy. And Amber and Alice are…?"

"Showers," Lily said.

"Okay. I'll just go find Sirius, I guess."

"He left with James and Pettigrew a little while ago, right before I came up here,"

"Well, He'd be back now, It's after curfew," Adriyana said. "Bye."

Adriyana went back down the stairs and to the Seventh-year boys' dormitory, knocking on the closed door. "Anyone?"

No answer.

"I'm going to come in, then," Adriyana said to the door before pushing it open.

The dormitory was empty.

"Hello?" Adriyana called, looking for any sign of anyone being there recently, but couldn't find anything.

_Maybe they're still out to wherever they went when Lily saw them leave. They're just a little late._ Adriyana sighed and picked up the watch on one of the boys' nightstands. _Nearly eleven. So they're more than a little late._

She headed back to the common room and curled up in a squishy red armchair by the fire, resting her chin on her knees and staring at the portrait hole, sure that they'd all come back any minute.

* * *

Remus winced as he sat up, propping himself against the pillows of the stark white hospital wing bed. He rubbed his eyes feebly, turning to the table by his bedside, on which there was a goblet full of a bight orange-y potion that was giving off strong-smelling smoke. He was familiar with drinking this potion, though he wasn't sure what it did, exactly, and the sharp fumes never failed to wake him up. 

He lifted the goblet to his lips, and cringed at the first bitter taste he got, before plugging his nose and draining the entire potion as fast as possible. Once it was empty, he set it down on the bedside table again, and slumped back down onto the pillows, closing his eyes and trying to fall back asleep. He couldn't, though, with the acrid taste still in his mouth, and he already felt well enough after the potion to get out of bed, so he got up off his curtained bed and went for the after pitcher.

"'Lo, Moony." Remus recognized the cheerful voice as Sirius'. He turned around.

Remus noticed that Sirius had a deep scar running across his chin, and promptly dropped his glass of water, which shattered as it hit the stone floor. "Wha…Padfoot, I'm really sorry! Did I—"

Sirius looked surprised. "Huh? Oh, you think…no, this cut is from this morning. Prongs and I ran into Snivelly this morning and he started going on about…" Sirius trailed off. "And I got angry and we started firing off hexes, and he hit me with that Sectum-something thing again, but I gave him octopus tentacles for arms! Moony, it was brilliant!"

Remus managed to laugh, relief flooding him now that he knew it wasn't the wolf that had injured Sirius. "You Transfigured his arms into octopus tentacles?"

Sirius nodded excitedly. "Yeah, but then he couldn't hold his wand anymore, so I came here because…well, it was bleeding a lot. Pomfrey was really angry at me, though. She says I should be getting worse punishment than detentions, because they're not working, or some rubbish like that. Oh, hang on…_Reparo._" He pointed his wand at the shards at their feet, which formed again into the glass, then he vanished the puddle of water.

Remus picked up the glass and Sirius cast a Cleaning Charm on it for him and handed it back. Remus picked up the pitcher and filled it with water again. "I'm going to go lie down again, okay?" he asked, taking a sip of water.

"Okay, Moony. I'm going to go find something else to do while I come up with an excuse for where I was last night…"

Remus turned around. "Who's asking?"

"Agie, she was looking for me in our dorm and I, of course, didn't show up, so…"

Remus lay back down on his hospital bed. "You didn't tell her, did you?" he asked.

"Of course not!" Sirius said. "But she needs some kind of excuse, eventually."

Remus yawned. "I can help you come up with something, if you want, but the less people who know about me, the better."

"Okay." Sirius nodded. "You look tired. I'll see you later, yeah?"

"Sure," Remus said sleepily, closing his eyes. He fell asleep as soon as he couldn't hear Sirius' footsteps anymore.

* * *

AN – Okay. I officially can't end chapters anymore 

**And now, for something very important (hence the boldface). Someone's been copying this story and claiming they wrote it themselves. That is so beyond the valley of NOT ON. Okay, so anyway, anyone who wants to report the story (I did, but I think they look faster if there's more reports) will be my hero. Just, when you get to the review-box-drop-down menu, highlight 'report abuse' and fill out the...abuse report. For me, please? The next chapter'll be up in a week if a bunch of you do! ;)**

**Oh, right. www. fanfiction. net /s/ 3578146 /1/ (without the spaces.)  
**

Thanks for reading! Oh, and I've exhausted my supply of review-box-related allusions, but…it's still there, isn't it?

**(((((Also, one more important announcement. The title of this story will be changed to ****_The Story of the Marauders_ by the next chapter. Don't forget, or you'll be really confused when the alert shows up in your inbox****.))))) :D**


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